Dr Jitendra felicitates school girl toppers from his constituency, underscores democratisation of opportunities
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Wednesday felicitated school girl toppers from his Udhampur-Kathua-Doda Lok Sabha constituency by presenting a Laptop each to the toppers in the Board examination of Class 10 from each of the five districts.
Quite a few of the topper school girls, who were invited to the Minister’s Trikuta Nagar residence this morning for breakfast and sweets distribution, hailed from far flung areas like Chhatroo and Padar in district Kishtwar, and Pogal in district Ramban. This , Dr Jitendra Singh said, could serve as a real Diwali gift for these promoting little girls for whom over the last one decade , Prime Minister Narendra Modi had rolled out a series of schemes and initiatives for easy, accessible options to prepare for competitive exams but many of them sometimes found it difficult to afford certain essential gadgets for round the clock facility at home.
While presenting laptops to two topper girls each from the districts of Udhampur, Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar and Kathua, city, Dr Singh expressed happiness that the students facilitated today hail from little-known villages and towns of these districts. He said the laptops presented to students as a Diwali gift would encourage them to continue their academic pursuits. While interacting with the students, Dr Jitendra said, in the last 11 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has ensured ease of education and preparation for students in view of a surge in their aspiration. He said the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) has given students freedom to choose subjects according to their aptitude. He said the policy has given them wings to fly high in pursuit of their dreams and aspirations.
The students today, the Minister, are no longer prisoners of their parental choice of subjects, adding that they now enjoy the freedom to make a choice out of a broad range of options, depending on their aptitude and evolving preferences. There is true democratisation of opportunities and aspirations in this country today, he said.
Dr Jitendra said, he was prompted to start this novel tradition of felicitating and facilitating girl students after learning from his experience in the Ministries which deal with students and youth. He revealed that out of around 1.75 lakh registered StartUps in India today, nearly fifty to sixty thousand were women led StartUps.
As for Civil Services/ IAS Examination, even this year all the three All India toppers were girls while in the 2022 Civil Services Exam, 11th All India topper was a girl from Poonch Degree College. He also recalled that in 2014, 15 and 16, for three consecutive years , the all India topper in the Civil Services Exam was a girl. Even in the Space sector, he noted that important projects like Aditya L1 and Chandrayaan 3 had women in the leading role.
Urging the students to leverage technology for their academic growth and betterment of society, Dr Jitendra said, the government has also ensured democratisation of opportunities for students belonging to all sections of the society and all genders.
He said, the objective is to equip them with requisite skills so that they can stay fully-empowered. He said the NEP 2020 is a modern, transformative policy for India’s education system, focusing on access, equity, quality, affordability and accountability.
