Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said that as many as 60 lakh new students have got admitted to the Basic Education Council schools in the last six years, praising ‘Operation Kayakalp’ for the betterment of the Council schools.

Interacting with school children during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popular annual dialogue programme ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha,’ Chief Minister Yogi said that before 2017, children were forced to come to schools barefoot, and today they come to school in proper uniform with school bags containing all necessary items.

With public participation and inter-departmental coordination, infrastructure facilities have increased in the Basic Education Council schools while the curriculum has also improved leading to the significant increase in the number of students getting enrolled, CM Yogi pointed out. The Chief Minister has said that innovative efforts like ‘Skilled India Mission’ will give momentum to the campaign to bring about further change in the educational scenario of the state.

The Chief Minister was present along with the children in the programme organised at Captain Manoj Kumar Pandey UP Sainik School, Lucknow. The CM said that Captain Manoj Pandey UP Sainik School was the first Sainik School in the country after which a chain of such schools were opened in the country, and added that Uttar Pradesh will have five new Sainik Schools by next year.

Addressing the parents and school management of children going to take 10^th and 12^th examination, the Chief Minister said that children should not be unduly pressurised to score better marks as it could have a damaging impact on them.

“They should be encouraged for a healthy competition, but they should not be pressurised for marks. Often, due to the stress arising out of the pressure, the children are unable to perform normally during the examination,” he said.

On the special occasion, the Chief Minister also honoured the meritorious students who secured excellent positions at state and national levels in the high school and intermediate board examinations in 2021-22. A total of 1698 meritorious students, including 825 boys and 873 girls, from various secondary boards were rewarded with Rs 1 lakh, tablets, citations and copies of the book ‘Exam Warriors’ authored by Prime Minister Modi.

The Vidya Samiksha Kendra was inaugurated by the Chief Minister, as an addition to the series of initiatives in the field of systematic education at the Mid Day Meal Authority office. It is a 60 seater call centre with 18 screens, through which the dashboard is displayed using artificial intelligence. Under this Mid Day Meal Module, Rejuvenation Module, Inspiration Quality Module, Inspection Module, Skilled Assessment Test Module, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Module and Activity Module are operated.

Quarterly skill assessment test will be conducted for all the students through Saral app while the report cards will be sent to all the students and parents after analyzing the data obtained from the skilful assessment test. The data obtained from the sample and spot assessment will be studied by the DIET trainee and mentor on the Nipun Lakshya app.