Punjab School Education and Public Works Minister, Mr Vijay Inder Singla Conferred State Awards on 80 Teachers and Educational Officials of the state for their distinguished contribution towards augmentation of infrastructural facilities and bringing in qualitative improvement in school education at the state level function organised at Patiala to mark the Teacher's Day.
He said that under the visionary stewardship of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh coupled with the concerted, consistent and dedicated efforts of the officials and the teachers of the school education department, Punjab had emerged a leading state in the field of education in the country. The Punjab has got the top rank in the Performance Grading Index released by the Union Government few months ago.
"The innovative initiatives taken by Punjab for sprucing up infrastructural facilities, qualitative improvement in education, starting pre primary education, ensuring transparency in recruitment as well as transfers of teachers as well as hassle free delivery of various public utility services etc. are being emulated by the other states", said the Education Minister while expressing his gratitude towards teachers for their laudable contribution in translating the vision of the state government at the ground zero level.
The people of the state have also been positively reciprocating the qualitative improvement in school education, which can be gauged from the huge increase in enrollment in government schools. About 7 lakh students in the state have left the private schools and got themselves enrolled in the government schools, he further said while adding that Punjab has been getting its teachers trained from international repute institutes like Indian School of Business and Bharti Education
Mr Vijay Inder Singla conferred state awards on 23 teachers of Patiala, Sangrur, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib districts at the auditorium of Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala. As many as 23 honored physically at Patiala while others virtually in the program conducted at District Headquarters. Out of these 36 Upper Primary Teachers and 22 Primary Teachers were given State Awards, 6 Upper Primary and 5 Primary Teachers were given Young Teacher Awards and 11 Education Officers were given Administrative State Awards.
Congratulating the teachers across the state on Teacher's Day, Mr Vijay Inder Singla paid homage to the late President, Scholar, Philosopher and Bharat Ratna Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, who was born on this day in 1888, he said that he (Dr Radhakrishnan) preferred to call himself a teacher despite being the President of India. Conveying his respect to the teachers, he said that after the parents, the teachers are the most important role models of one's life so the teachers are lucky for having been a part of the nation building.
He also lauded the teachers for transforming unprecedented challenge of COVID-19 into an opportunity to prove their mettle. The government teachers have shown unparalleled dedication in performing unique services in the field of education. However, due to the collective efforts of all the staff of the education department, the smart school policy remained also successful. Mr Singla expressed hope that Punjab would also be leading in the National Achievement Survey. He said that Punjab had the best teacher-student ratio in the country and the entire infrastructure including sports in government schools, had been strengthened.
Welcoming Mr Singla, Secretary School Education, Mr Krishan Kumar termed the selection system of state level awards as the best system in the country. The mandate of awards extended to school principals and district education officials and young teachers to take advantage of the enthusiasm and boost their morale.
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Mr Ramesh Kumar Ganta, Principal Secretary, Punjab State Technical Education Department, who was present on the occasion, congratulated the teachers and said that education was a mission and he was happy that school education in Punjab was one of the best in the country. He said that in today's technological age, the importance of teachers has increased even more. DPI (Secondary) Sukhjitpal Singh thanked everyone.
On this occasion, Deputy Commissioner Patiala, Kumar Amit, Registrar IKGPTU, Jaspreet Singh IAS, ADC Jalandhar, DPI (Secondary) Sukhjitpal Singh, ADC (G) Pooja Sayal Grewal, Assistant Commissioner (G) Jasleen Kaur Bhullar, In-Charge DPI (Elementary) Harinder Kaur, Deputy Director (Sports) Sunil Kumar, Assistant Director (Secondary) Karamjit Kaur, District Education Officer (Secondary) Mohali, Jarnail Singh Kaleke, Baljinder Singh District Education Officer (Elementary) Mohali, Prabhsimran Kaur District Education Officer (Secondary) Fatehgarh Sahib, Jagwinder Singh District Education Officer (Elementary) Fatehgarh Sahib were present. Apart from this, the District Education Officers from other districts, participated Virtually through vodeo conferencing from respective district headquarters. The Program was moderated by Headmistress Rupinder Kaur Grewal and Amardeep Singh Bath.