Govt committed to education reforms: LG Sinha

Srinagar, May 21: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Tuesday said that the government was committed to reforms in the education sector.

Chairing a meeting of the J&K Higher Education Council at Raj Bhawan, the LG reiterated the commitment of the J&K administration to effective policies and reforms in the education sector.

The council headed by LG Sinha discussed the comprehensive and holistic transformation of the education sector in J&K.

The LG called upon all stakeholders to focus on actualising human potential in service of society.

He emphasised the need for assessing the values of each course of higher education to ensure they meet the expectations of students and employers.

“One of the objectives of higher education is to prepare future leaders. Under Higher Education Council, we will do an honest assessment of the effectiveness of subjects and whether the return on investment by the universities is satisfactory,” the LG said.

He lauded the contribution of all the members of the council and stakeholders in driving the transformation in the higher education landscape of J&K.

The LG impressed upon the higher education institutions for the implementation of innovative programmes like DYD in a time-bound manner.

“Curriculum and classroom learning should be innovative and it must encourage problem-solving skills among the students,” he said. “We have to make higher education institutions of UT capable of nurturing future entrepreneurs.”

The meeting discussed the important matters about the status of NEP-2020 implementation across J&K universities, updates, sustainability, and expansion roadmap for the Design Your Degree (DYD) programme, initiatives to promote entrepreneurship, start-ups, and tangible skill programmes and proposals for new joint programmes and initiatives for 2024-25.

Vice Chairman JKHEC, Prof Dinesh Singh called for putting a special focus on grasping the spirit of the DYD programme in the larger context of National Education Policy.

“As an educational institution, we must recognise our strengths and weaknesses and empower the students to take the lead in redefining classroom learning,” he said.

The council also discussed various facets of the DYD programme including ideas on greater inter-institutional cooperation for sharing of credit and for sharing of resources.

Advisor to LG, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar; Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo; Vice Chancellors and members of the council shared their views and thoughts on the implementation of NEP-2020 and sustainability and expansion of DYD programme in J&K.

The meeting was attended by Vice Chairman, J&K Higher Education Council, Prof Dinesh Singh; Principal Secretary Higher Education Department, Alok Kumar; VC University of Jammu, Prof Umesh Rai; VC University of Kashmir, Prof Nilofer Khan; VC IUST, Prof Shakil Ahmad Romshoo; VC SMVDU Pragati Kumar; VC BGSBU Prof Akbar Masood; VC Cluster University Srinagar Prof Qayyum Husain; VC SKUAST Jammu B N Tripathi; and VC SKUAST Kashmir Nazir Ahmed Ganai.

Principal Secretary, Finance Department, Santosh D Vaidya; Principal Secretary to LG Mandeep Kumar Bhandari; Commissioner Secretary, Department of I&C, Vikramjit Singh; Prof Kavi Arya from IIT Bombay; Director, Cluster Innovation Centre Delhi University Shobha Bagai, and Principal Amar Singh College Prof Sheikh Ajaz Bashir also attended the meeting.