Himachal govt spending Rs 9,000 crore on education this fiscal: Minister

Our Correspondent

Chamba, August 16

The state government was continuously striving to improve the quality of education and positive results would be achieved in the near future, Education Minister Rohit Thakur said on Friday.

He was presiding over a review meeting of the Education Department at Government Postgraduate College, Chamba. The meeting was attended by headmasters and principals of various colleges and schools of the district.

The Education Minister said about Rs 9,000 crore was being spent on education in the current financial year. When the current government came to power in 2022, there were 15,000 vacant posts in various educational institutions across the state, he added.

In the first year itself, the government approved the filling of 7,000 posts, he said, adding that recently, 1,100 Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT) positions were filled on a batch-wise basis, with 236 of these being filled in Chamba district.

Additionally, 1,100 Junior Basic Training (JBT) posts would be filled soon, he said.

Responding to local MLA Neeraj Nayar and residents’ demands, Thakur announced that a postgraduate course in sociology would be introduced at Government PG College in the next financial year.

He assured the gathering that the demand for an additional building and furniture for the college would be addressed promptly.

Earlier, Deputy Director (Higher Education) Pyar Singh Chadak provided an overview of the number of schools and students in the district through a PowerPoint presentation. He also shared insights into the examination results of the district’s schools over the years. Chadak said there were a total of 317 government schools in the district, with a total enrollment of 44,621 students — 22,102 are boys and 22,519 girls. Of the 3,325 sanctioned positions across the district’s educational institutions, 32 per cent were vacant, he added.

Deputy Director (Elementary Education) Gyan Singh said there were 1,409 schools under elementary education in the district — 1,181 government primary schools and 228 government middle schools. A total of 29,670 students were enrolled in government primary schools — 14,481 boys and 15,189 girls. In middle schools, there were 6,988 students — 3,387 boys and 3,601 girls.

Principals of government colleges in Chamba, Chowari, Bharmour and Banikhet provided detailed reports on infrastructure development, educational achievements and sports accomplishments to the Education Minister.