On the occasion of Teacher’s Day this year, Deputy Commissioner, Budgam, Jammu & Kashmir, launched a mega initiative called the ‘One Officer-One School’, with the aim to ensure quality education and inclusion of extra co-curricular activities in all schools of the district.
In an exclusive interview with Indian Masterminds, DC Budgam, S F Hamid, IAS, shared details about the initiative.
ONE OFFICER, ONE SCHOOL
Mr. Hamid said that this initiative is important for the improvement in dissemination of quality education and overall development of the students. Under this initiative, officers will adopt one or two schools voluntarily in the district. The aim is to create a bridge between the schools and administration and take the education sector to new heights.
Extra-curricular activities skill development also come under the initiative. “Through this initiative we want school children to get time for extra co-curricular activities and inculcate skills in themselves,” Mr. Hamid said.
He further informed that each school will have one nodal officer who will look after the school and provide the things it needs. The officers will also look into teachers’ attendance, punctuality, and their performance.
“Our main objective is to ensure teachers remain in school for teaching purposes only,” the officer said.
The concerned officers who have adopted the schools will also visit them twice a month and provide mentorship, training for the subjects if needed, arrange motivational speakers and resource persons for different subjects and help in organising co-curricular activities and massive student involvement. The officers will also sensitize the teachers on the various provisions of the New Education Policy.
“As of now, we are visiting the school once or twice a month. However, once everything is settled, we are going to visit the schools more often,” Mr. Hamid said.
34 SCHOOLS ADOPTED
In the first phase of the initiative, 34 schools have been adopted by the officers. The Deputy Commissioner of Budgam has himself adopted 17 primary schools from each block. “I myself have adopted schools and have started visiting them. The aim is to ensure that all schools in the district are adopted by October 2, the Gandhi Jayanti day. The adoption of school is voluntary and there is no pressure on anyone,” Mr. Hamid added.
There are more than 1000 schools in the district and all schools, from primary to higher secondary, will be covered by this initiative. The officers who have adopted schools will look after the overall development and highlight the administrative glitches by submitting a list of issues and demands to the higher-ups for redressal at the earliest.
“I am very hopeful that through this initiative we will be able to bring about a change in the education sector of Budgam,” Mr. Hamid concluded.