Himachal Pradesh Education Minister Suresh Bhardwaj said the last Congress government in the state had opened a number of education institutes without creating infrastructure and recruitment of staff.
"The last Congress-led government opened most educational institutions in Himachal without creating infrastructure and placement of staff. On October 21, 2017, just before the state assembly elections, the then chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who was holding the education portfolio, opened 21 colleges in a single stroke," said Bhardwaj at a press conference here on Saturday.
He said the present BJP government made 16 of these "new colleges" functional, by developing infrastructure and placement of faculty.
"However, five such colleges could not be operated due to non-availability of students," the minister said.
He said the ministry had organised the second seminar for proposed changes in the education policy of the centre in Dharamshala on Saturday. The first seminar was held in Shimla.
If we get more time to submit our proposal for the national education policy, then some more seminars shall be organised in Mandi and Hamirpur, Bhardwaj said.
The minister said, "We have suggested a separate education policy for all Himalayan states which suits their topographical conditions."
He said for this a meeting of educationalists from northeast states, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir shall be organised.
Bhardwaj said the Himachal Education Board was the first in the country to install CCTV camera's in all affiliated schools to check cheating during examinations.
In the second phase of the programme, he said, the authorities will be able to view the live happenings from the board's office through these cameras.
He said pre-primary classes had started in 3,391 schools till march 31.
He said plans were afoot to bring anganwadi's in the school complexes, so as to provide the first step in education up to primary level in a single cluster complex.
The minister said teachers shall be trained 50 hours per year to keep them updated.
"In principle, we have adopted the suggestion to retire school teachers only after the academic session. Appointments will be done in the same way. This will also be applicable to promotions," said Bhardwaj.
He said the previous Congress government (2013-17) in the state had filled only 6,000 posts in the education department, whereas his government had filled 5,500 posts in just 18 months and also recruited 623 assistant professors.
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