STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Minister for Education Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Wednesday said the Government is fully prepared to make the twin Cluster Universities functional in the State from current academic session.
He asked the Vice-Chancellors of these varsities to focus on realising the envisioned objective of bringing up these newly established institutions as
centres of excellence in higher learning.
Altaf Bukhari was speaking during a meeting convened to discuss broad counters of making these Universities operational from the current session.
Established through a legislation passed by State Legislature, the two Cluster Universities, one each in Jammu and Srinagar, have been approved under Rashtriya Uchchttar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) against a total allocation of Rs. 110 crore ( Rs. 55 crore for each University).
Minister of State of Education and Tourism, Priya Sethi was also present on the occasion.
In the day, the Education Minister also chaired a meeting to review the progress achieved under various components of Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyan (SSA).
Expressing concern over the school dropout rate in the State, Altaf Bukhari underlined the need for narrowing down the critical gaps at all levels in the implementation of the intervention components devised to address this problem.
It was informed in the meeting that the scheme has special provisions for bringing back out of schoolchildren who have left education at various levels. The census done by SSA Directorate recently puts the number of out-of-school children at around 30,000. In this regard, SSA Directorate has devised a bridge course schedule to bring these children back in the streamline and the material for such bridge courses is ready, while over 150 teachers of the districts having high concentration of such children have been imparted trained to facilitate the remedial education in the identified schools.