He said that the purpose of coming to Leh with the entire member of the Knowledge Initiative Committee is to have close interaction with all the stakeholders in the district to get suggestions and ideas mainly based on knowledge and values rooted in best of the traditional system.

Mattoo is the Chairman of recently constituted Knowledge Initiative Committee by the state government with the objective of empowering J&K’s youth in a global knowledge society.

He added that the aim of the committee is to bring out a report with implementable recommendations by preparing a vision document for interventions in skill, teaching, curriculum, research and innovation and extra-curricular programmes that will be drawn from global best practices and traditionally rooted knowledge and ancient wisdom.

Mattoo vows to take education to the doorstep of common man and ensured holistic education and plethora of opportunities to the young students under KI through policies, guidelines, schemes and making optimum use of existing infrastructure and human resources in the state incorporated with information and communication technology. 

He stressed on the need to create a sense of balance between human needs, sustainability, native culture and international development. He said that Ladakh has been exemplary in communal harmony and expressed hope that through KI they will be able to strike a balance between their modern education needs and traditional knowledge system.

Dorjey Mutup, EC Education requested the committee to consider adding more subjects in the University courses in Leh that will ensure more enrolment, posting of lecturers as per subject expertise, improve education facilities in govt schools at par with private schools, to held entrance exams in Leh, to introduce electronic and electrical wing in ITI courses in Leh, to have a monitoring cell in Ladakh to address the issues of vacant posts and to include Bhoti language on the lines of Sowa Rigpa in the 8th schedule. 

 

Tashi Dolma, JD Education Ladakh stressed on the need to recruit locals as trainers for vocational courses. She further suggested looking for solution to address the time gap between admission session of CBSE and J&K Board, internet facilities in schools, introducing technical courses to mention few.

Aggarwal explaining about KI said that their aim is to broaden the knowledge horizon and make our youth capable to competent at international level. 

He stressed on the need to have skills with education in tandem with the local environment for our young students to excel in their career. 

During the open floor discussion, he noted all the suggestions and ideas coming from Principal EJM College in detail about their initiatives and problems, representatives of civil societies, teachers, and students.

The issue of opening of Institute of Music and Fine Arts which has been remaining pending since 2007 was also raised for consideration by the committee.