Srinagar, June 15: Pro Vice Chairman Delhi Public School (DPS) Srinagar, Vijay Dhar on Thursday said that both private and government schools can collaborate for imparting quality education and use common facilities, particularly in the sports sector.
Vijay Dhar was addressing the function at DPS Srinagar, which was attended by J&K’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and other eminent dignitaries.
Dhar emphasised the School’s accomplishments, which included a learning school and a virtual interface designed for children with special needs. He emphasised the importance of collaborating between public and private schools in order to provide quality education to all.
Dhar stated that private schools can work with government schools to help them upgrade. “Every private school can adopt 2-3 government schools within three kilometres and upgrade them, as well as use the common facilities available, especially in sports,” he said.
Dhar further said that there are approximately 25,000 government schools in J&K with a student population of 16 lakhs, and 700 private schools with a student population of 12 lakhs.
“Let public and private schools collaborate on the same educational cause.” “The investment in private schools should be around 60,000 crore, and they are attempting to supplement the government’s education efforts,” he said.
Dhar said free education was announced in 1951 but still, we have the lowest standard of education. In seventy years, we should have become an Education Hub of the country, he said.
“The major achievement of DPS Srinagar is the setting up of a Learning Resource Centre (LRC) for the specially-abled children and visually impaired. Our school has 158 such special children catered by 57 in-house trained teachers,” he said.
Pro Vice Chairman said DPS Srinagar is the only school in the UT and one of the very few in the country with such facilities for these children.
Dhar said DPS is the first school in the country that is 100% Solar. We were given a subsidy of 75% by GOI. Despite being 100% Solar, our school has to pay a fixed monthly charge of Rs 1,20,000 per month.
“We are only requesting that for all schools which go SOLAR, the Monthly Fixed Charges should be only 25% of the estimated charges. We would recommend all offices; schools, police stations, particularly in remote areas to use Solar,” he said.
Speaking about Artificial Intelligence, he said remote areas that have long been devoid of quality education can now benefit from virtual classrooms and AI-powered teaching tools.
‘The advent of Al in education can address the stark disparities that exist within our country. With the right infrastructure and strategic implementation, we can bridge the gap between rural and urban education, Dhar said.
” Imagine a classroom armed with the power of Al, which can engage and interact with students simultaneously, catering to their individual needs and learning styles. Think of a scenario where every child, regardless of their geographical location, has access to high-quality education, courtesy of Artificial intelligence powered by virtual classrooms,” Pro-Chairman DPS Srinagar Dhar said.
Reacting to the Fee Fixation Committee’s role, Dhar said their role should be to work according to Supreme Court guidelines where the schools can fix their Fees according to their needs.
“The Fee Fixation Committee should ensure that the schools do not indulge in profiteering or divert funds to other businesses. Ensure that the schools have proper drinking water, proper toilets for boys and girls, proper fire fighting facilities, sports etc,” he said.
Dhar said the committee has to play a very important role in private school education. They do not have to make schools beg for an increase in fees which at times takes more than 4 years to decide.
“The committee has never had an educationist or a chartered accountant on board. The private schools have to play their part also and not consider themselves as high and mighty,” he added.
“We at D.P.Dhar Memorial Trust and DPS Srinagar are willing to create laboratories that can collaborate with technologies and experts to create the transformation tools that personalize beyond the syllabus and not be limited to the prescribed curriculum,” he said.
Dhar said at one time in history Education in Kashmir was comparable to Kashi Vidyapith. Together, let us embark on this journey of personalized education, empowering every child to discover their unique path of intellectual development and growth.
