4 more Schools of Eminence to come up

With four Schools of Eminence already in place in the district, four more Schools of Eminence will get an upgrade by early next year as the District Education Office has sent a blueprint for the proposed development of four senior secondary schools in Karampura, Sultanwind, Varpal and Ajnala to the Education Department.

Out of the four schools shortlisted for the second phase of SoE (School of Eminence) project, two fall in Amritsar urban, one in the remote border belt of Ajnala and one in Jandiala Guru constituency.

These schools are Government Senior Secondary Smart School, Karampura; Government Senior Secondary Smart School, Varpal; Government Senior Secondary Smart School (Girls), Sultanwind and Government Senior Secondary Smart School (Boys), Ajnala.

Admissions to these schools had already begun for the academic session 2024-25 under the School of Eminence Standard Operating Procedure.

While these four are designated as Schools of Eminence, the work on infrastructural development including expansion of classrooms, modular labs and school furniture is yet to begin. The other works including technology integrated classrooms, AI labs etc too will commence only after the state government gives its nod.

“These eight schools were already announced for upgrade as Schools of Eminence in Amritsar last year. While four SoEs were developed in the first phase, the other four fall in Phase 2 of development. We have already designed and shared the blueprint of development, including requirements and proposed cost of these upgrades,” said District Education Officer (SE), Amritsar, Harbhagwant Singh.

While the funds for development of these schools at par with the SoEs in first phase is yet to be announced officially, free school transport service has been introduced in two out four of these schools.

“We could not find any transport operator for the School of Eminence, Varpal, but the bus service would soon commence in SoE Ajnala,” said Harbhagwant Singh.

Meanwhile, School of Eminence, Karampura, also houses Pehal, an inclusive resource centre for Children With Special Needs (CWSN).