Govt working for raising education standard: CM

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 21

Keen on imparting quality education and making youth employable, the state government targets to achieve 80 per cent grade level competency of students by the end of 2018 as against 60 per cent now.

This was disclosed by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar during a press conference on the completion of 1,000 days of his government here today.

Maintaining that his government had taken a number of new initiatives to improve the education system, Khattar said: “We have started a monthly test programme for the evaluation of students in government schools. Under this 22 lakh students are being judged. The government would open 30 new colleges in the next two years. We have already opened 23 colleges during the last two-and-a-half years” .

Referring to employability, he said the government had focused on skill development to make youth employable . Under the Saksham Yuva Scheme, about 18,000 youth got themselves registered out of which more than 12,000 have been given employment.

Terming “transparency” as the hallmark of his 1,000-day rule, Khattar said putting systems back in place had weeded out corruption and ensured that jobs were given on merit .

About the SYL canal, the Chief Minister claimed that his government initiative had helped in an early decision on the canal.

The number of villages getting 24-hourr power supply would go up from 550 to 1,000 by August 15 while line losses have come down by 5 per cent, Khattar said.