As part of the initiatives to improve the quality of education in Haryana and provide the students enabling environment to hone their skills and faculties, 418 English medium government schools in the state have been made bag-free.

Disclosing this at a Press Conference on Thursday, additional chief secretary, School Education Department, Dheera Khandelwal said besides bag-free schools, Science and Maths have been introduced in English medium from class IX.

She said besides this, student assessment tests have been made mandatory every two months and six English language labs and Atal Tinkering Laboratories have been set up in schools.

Emphasis has also been laid on imparting training to teachers to teach especially abled students in specific subjects, Khandelwal added.

She said with focus set on imparting quality education and effecting all-round development of students, the department has taken many improvement initiatives.

In 2017-18, Classes I and II in 180 English Medium schools were made bag-free, and this year, 238 schools are being covered.

She said six language labs had been set up in selected Model Sanskriti Schools to facilitate digital learning and improving listening and speaking skills of the students. Gradually, more language labs would be set up in other schools of the state.

A booklet containing 1,000 sentences or phrases has been prepared which contains 200 sentences for each class up to class V. This would ensure the students would learn about 1,000 words till class V at primary level of schooling.

Khandelwal said this year, under Super 100 Programme, 100 meritorious students of government schools securing more than 85 per cent marks in Class 10th would get free coaching for IIT, JEE, NEET along with boarding and facility. This two-year training course for medical and engineering competitive entrance exams would be absolutely free of cost.

Government will conduct entrance test in June for candidates seeking admission in this course. The scheme has been launched for the current financial year 2018-19.

Khandelwal said the department would select 225 students to provide free expert coaching for entrance examinations. Moreover, the state government would also bear the boarding, lodging and travel expenditure during these two years.

For promotion of science, the department has started teaching Maths and Science in English medium from Class 9 in selected 310 schools.

In order to promote Science Programme, about 2,300 Science (Physics, Chemistry and Biology) Kits have been provided to secondary and senior secondary schools in the last two years i.e. 2016-2017 and 2017-18. In addition 8,000 science kits have been supplied in all schools running middle classes.