A sum of Rs. 1.72 crore has been sanctioned to construct 12 classrooms and six laboratories in Government schools in Coimbatore district under a Centrally-sponsored scheme.
Chief Educational Officer A. Gnanagowri told The Hindu that funds would be utilised from the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), a Central Government project launched in March 2009 to enhance access to secondary education and improve its quality. Under this scheme, the project costs would be covered in the ratio of 75:25 by the Central and State Governments.
The construction works would be taken up by the Public Works Department shortly. The estimates prepared would provide Rs. 1 crore for the classrooms and Rs. 72 lakh for the laboratories. The funds would also cover the cost of furniture for the classrooms and the physics, chemistry and biology equipment for laboratories.
The needs of Government schools were constantly assessed and funds sanctioned for works accordingly, she added.
A video conference was hosted on Friday for Principals and Headmasters of all Government and private schools on the data entry for District Information System for Education (DISE) through EDUSAT, she said.
The DISE was a Central Government project to create a comprehensive database of all Government, aided and private schools in the country. It was supplemented at the State level by the Education Management Information System (EMIS) managed by the Tamil Nadu Department of School Education. The DISE would collect all data on the schools, right from the number of benches and chairs and teachers’ strength besides an analysis of the academic performance.
Resource personnel from Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) addressed the videoconference and spoke about various aspects of data entry. The Government school headmasters participated in the video conference at the Block Resource Centres.
Ms. Gnanagowri said that while the schools would submit the data in a printed questionnaire, the Education Department would upload them into the DISE.
