25 Smart Schools for Srinagar ready

Sumayyah Qureshi

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 20

A little delayed, but the 25 government schools, taken up under the Smart City project for upgrade as ‘smart’ schools, are finally ready.

This was revealed by Srinagar Deputy Commissioner Shahid Choudhary on Sunday.

He tweeted: “Belated though, here is the New Year gift for Srinagar. After months of hard work, our 25 smart schools are ready to offer students and parents the best. Let’s make it great.”

The DC also posted a few pictures giving people a peak into how smart schools looked with their upgraded infrastructure, including smart classrooms.

Earlier, while talking to The Tribune, the Deputy Commissioner had said there were two motives behind the upgrade of infrastructure in government schools under the Smart City project: To make classrooms more attractive so as to attract more students to government schools and improvement in learning outcomes.

Government schools which are included in the list of ‘smart schools’, are Boys Middle School, Gagribal; Boys Middle School, Drugjan; Middle School, Allochibagh; Government Middle School, Panzinara; Middle School, Cheki Mujigund; Middle School, Khojabagh; Government Middle School, Boatmen Colony; Middle School, Kothi Bagh; Middle School, Apparpora Balhama; Government School, Gundabal; Middle School, Chatterhama; Government Middle School, Buchpora; Middle School, Panjkarwari and Boys Middle School, Habak.

The 25 government schools in Srinagar district were near completion in December last year, the DC had said earlier.

The teacher-pupil ratio in government schools in Srinagar is 1:5. With only 18 per cent of the Valley students studying in government schools and the rest preferring private schools, the government has been constantly trying to raise the standard of government schools and bring them on a par with private schools and also increase the enrolment in government-run schools.

A senior official said the government had made both software and hardware interventions in these schools from Class 1 to Class VIII. He said the criteria for the development of the schools under the Smart City project had been the availability of government land, own building and student roll.

The schools have been selected as per the National Achievement Survey, the official said.