The 5th Governing Body Meeting of ‘Yountan Society’ Samagra Shiksha, UT Ladakh was held under the chairmanship of Advisor Ladakh, Umang Narula on March 28. The officials of the Education Department UT Ladakh apprised the Advisor regarding the action taken report on various decisions taken during the last meeting of the Governing Body.

Director, School Education Department, Ladakh, Safdar Ali gave a detailed presentation on the following agenda items viz. Financial and Physical progress of Samagra UT Ladakh; Performance Grading Index (PGI); Operationalization of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV); Status of implementation of Vocational Education; Status of New Educational Policy; NIPUN Bharat Mission under NEP; CBSE/Setting up of SCERT and decision on JK BOSE employees; MoU with NGOs for handholding support; Eklavya Model Residential School Society, UT Ladakh, and Fresh Proposal for the year 2023-24, amongst others.

Deliberating on the intervention-wise projections under Samagra Shiksha and fresh proposals, it was exhorted that proposals for regular posts should be prepared for approval by the competent authority. Advisor Narula impressed upon the officials that sustained capacity-building training for the teachers should be maintained and to adopt the requisite modalities as per the norms for the strengthening of schools.

It was intimated during the meeting that the process of affiliation of schools of UT Ladakh with CBSE is completed and all Government schools are now affiliated with CBSE. Also, 10 KGBVs of Type 1 (for class VI to VIII) have been sanctioned and made functional.

About New India Literacy Programme (NILP) which is a new initiative by the Ministry of Education to impart functional literacy & numeracy, basic education & critical life skills to adult illiterates with a special focus on women to achieve 100% literacy in the country, it was informed that during 2021-2022, 10,000 adult learners have been covered and assessment by NIOS have been carried out. 40,000 illiterate populations were recorded in the Survey conducted under the scheme by SED. In this regard, 417 voluntary teachers and 54 teachers have been engaged and the translation of 4 Primers and teacher guidelines has been completed with 632 functional literacy centres.

About MoU with NGOs such as Kaivalya Education Foundation: For Teachers Training; ICS Education Limited: For Career Counseling; Save the Children: For Peace Education program; Indus Action: Implementation of Right to Education (RTE Section 12); 17000th ft foundation: Early Childhood Education program and Samarthaya: Implementation of parents as partners (SMC) for providing handholding support to Yountan Society, it was informed that so far MoU with 4 NGOs have been signed amongst the list. Their services shall be utilized as per the agreement for the overall development of the educational standard.

Furthermore, Committee members, Kacho Isfindyar Khan (IAS retd) and E.S Gergan provided insight on the adoption of Bodhi and Purgi as a third language and deliberated on the challenges and solutions for the same.

The meeting was attended by members of Administrative Secretary PD&MD; Ladakh, Pawan Kotwal; Administrative Secretary, SED, Ladakh, Sanjeev Khirwar; Administrative Secretary Social & Tribal Welfare, Ladakh, Padma Angmo; Additional Project Director SAMAGRA SHIKSHA, Ladakh; Chairperson, J&K BOSE; Deputy Commissioner / CEO LAHDC, Leh / Kargil; Director School Education Department, Ladakh; Representative from Central Board of School Education; Members, Kacho Isfindyar Khan, (IAS Retd), E.S Gergan and other concerned officials.