State to monitor outcome of School Mentorship Programme

Launching the ambitious ‘School Mentorship’ programme across 15 government schools in the state, wherein top bureaucrats and IPS officers would inspire and guide young minds, the state education department will now also monitor the outcome of these mentorship sessions conducted in each school. As per officials of the district education department, a notification will soon be issued to all IAS and IPS officers, who adopted these 15 schools to prepare an annual report on the outcome and impact of these mentoring sessions.

The development comes after the state education department had advertised the School Mentorship Programme as a game-changer in building confidence and boosting soft skills of students from government schools through these curated sessions.

In Amritsar, young 2019 batch IPS officer, Maninder Singh, posted as SSP rural, has adopted the School of Eminence, Ajnala, where he also conducted a session with students. Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, Sakshi Sawhney has adopted the School of Eminence, Khanna, where she conducted a session in May.

Around 80 bureaucrats, including IAS, IPS and PCS officers, volunteered to act as mentors under the ‘School Mentorship’ programme. The government had introduced one-of-its-kind scheme wherein top bureaucrats would inspire and guide young minds to aim high in life. Most of the 15 schools selected for the programme fall in border districts and in far-flung areas, including Pathankot, Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Ferozepur. The mentors will visit and collaborate with their schools over the year and assist students in career counselling, exposure visits, teachers’ training on innovative pedagogy, increasing parental participation, piloting innovative ideas and improving learning environment.

Both SSP Maninder Singh and DC Sakshi Sawhney have been individually engaging with students from government schools in the district, inviting them over for office visits for a deeper understanding of administrative and police department functioning. While there has been only one mentorship session conducted till date, the notification seeking these officials to prepare an outcome and assessment report seems to turn this voluntary exercise into a mandatory task.