NUEPA Awards to District and Block Level Education Officers

The Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Smt Smriti Irani presented the awards to the District and Block level Education Officers for innovations in Educational Administration at a function here today, organized by National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA). While speaking at the function, the Union HRD Minister said that the minds of school children could be ignited through the use of new and innovative methods in the field of education. For this, she suggested the use of EDU-SAT - ICT Enabled Technology in schools. She also mentioned that in Kendriya Vidyalaya Schools, the programme called IGNITING MINDS will be able to connect the young minds with the prominent scientists across the country as well as abroad. While congratulating the award winners she described the innovators in the field of education as soldiers of education who are constantly marching for developing innovative methods. The Minister suggested that they make a short project on their blocks or districts in order to know the historical importance of the place. The same, she said, could be shared with the rest of the country under Best Practices. Shaala Utsav is a step taken by the Government in this direction. Quoting Abraham Lincoln, the Minister said that the philosophy of school rooms will decide the philosophy of the next government. So the New Education Policy should include the views of all the stakeholders be it parents, students, or the 2.5 lakh village councils in the country. The Secretary School Education and Literacy, Shri R. Bhattacharya said that children are energetic and active and they should be made aware of their local environs. Their mind is always ticking and one should be sensitive to their learning needs. Therefore both contextual teaching and contextual learning is very important, he added. The Vice Chancellor of NUEPA, Professor Govinda talked of the areas of innovations as well as the wide range of themes on the basis of which the awards were decided – Governance at local levels, teaching-learning process, community participation and support, use of Information Technology, improving school performance and supervision and monitoring. There were70 Innovations from various States, out of which 31 innovations spread over 10 different States, were selected for the purpose of the awards. The awards were the first of its kind as these were presented to the educational innovators who worked at the district and block level and who play a crucial role at the grass roots level. The National Award Function on Innovations in Educational Administration was attended by dignitaries from the field of education across the country as well as abroad, besides the officials from NUEPA and HRD Ministry.