Fourteen government school buildings will be completed at a cost of ₹3 crore as part of the 100-day action plan of the government, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
He was speaking after inaugurating through videoconference the buildings of 34 higher secondary schools in various Assembly constituencies in the State on Wednesday.
The Chief Minister said ₹3,129 crore had been set aside for basic infrastructure development of schools. The construction of 250 school buildings would get under way soon. More than 350 schools were taking up infrastructure development using Plan funds.
Rest of the schools should be completed at the earliest. This should be done with the support of the people and people’s representatives.
Centres of excellence
Mr. Vijayan said the project for transforming one school in each Assembly constituency into a centre of excellence with the support of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board as part of the Public Education Rejuvenation Missing was under way. Twenty-two school buildings built at ₹5 crore each had been inaugurated earlier. With the 34 new buildings on Wednesday, the inauguration of 56 buildings had been completed.
The remaining school buildings should be completed at the earliest. This should be done with the support of the people and their representatives for arranging more facilities.
The State was successful in providing good education to students. Computer labs, even in primary schools, and 45,000 hi-tech classrooms had come up in schools, arrangements for Internet facilities were on, and the K-Fon project was making good progress. Schools were getting libraries, conference halls and kitchen facilities, making even those located in rural areas comparable to the best institutions anywhere in the world. Teachers were being trained in handling the smart classes. Academic interventions too were made, and the State’s achievements were noted at the national level, as surveys have revealed. All these gave the government the confidence to start the academic year on June 1 despite the pandemic, the Chief Minister said.
School reopening
Notwithstanding the hurdles faced by a few students, the online classes had become successful owing to the support of all sections of people. The government was only leading such interventions. This was a model to the world.
The Chief Minister reiterated that schools would reopen the moment conditions became conducive, and the schools would get all facilities by then.
