JAMMU: One of the most important goals of the Directorate of Samagra Shiksha, J&K is to develop an enabling environment for a child so as to ensure universal acquisition of fundamental literacy and numeracy. Such an environment shall pave the way for every child to achieve the desired learning competencies in reading, writing and Numeracy at Primary level.
In continuation of these efforts, the Directorate of Samagra Shiksha, J&K, under the aegis of School Education Department, J&K headed by B.K Singh, Principal Secretary School Education Department, conceived a programme for Mentorship of each student at primary level through a web portal (STEER), which will soon be launched by the higher authorities.
Accordingly, Deep Raj, Project Director, Samagra Shiksha, J&K inaugurated two day offline Training Sessions, for the District Nodal Officers, Zonal Nodal Officers and other stakeholders of Jammu Division at Conference Hall, Directorate of Samagra Shiksha, Jammu.
In his Inaugural address, the Director Samagra Shiksha said that in the first phase all 12972 Primary Schools would be covered and Mentor teachers in these primary schools will be allotted a group of 10 students to address their educational needs. The specific objectives of mentoring shall be identification of learning gaps, design comprehensive strategies for sustainably improving learning outcomes, monitoring the performance, facilitating high frequency comprehensive evaluation of students. This will be initially carried-out at primary level to assess the impact of mentorship on student learning outcomes.
He also informed that, to acquaint the teachers and other stakeholders about the operational strategies of the web portal and the programme, this training programme for DNOs and ZNOs (Jammu Division) and Representatives of DIETs as identified by SCERT has been arranged. SCERT has been entrusted with the Training of Teachers and to give knowledge regarding the curriculum for various classes, SCERT has been kept as main Stakeholder.
The UNICEF remained the technical partner and helped to facilitate the training.
He further reiterated that the School Education Department was in a continuous process of upgrading the Educational system through various Reforms. He said that lakhs of rupees are being utilized for the purpose including Strengthening of Infrastructure and raising the academic standard, through various interventions.
Bilal Rashid, Dy. Director Planning, Samagra Shiksha, J&K welcomed the participants and responded to their queries. He also informed the participants that such Trainings are also to be imparted to Mentors of their respective zones, so that the information may reach at Portal User end. He emphasized on creation of WhatsApp Groups so that doubts, if any, may be cleared.
Jagdeep Kumar Padha, Administrative Officer, Samagra Shiksha, J&K, was also present and delivered a motivational Talk for the participants.
The training was attended by 204 participants including 1 DNO from each district along with ZNOs from each zone and one representative from DIETs of Jammu division.
The programme was divided in four sessions viz morning and afternoon sessions. Five districts were trained on day one and five districts were on day two.
Apart from theoretical explanation, Basharat, Master Trainer also imparted hands-on training to all the participants and replied to the queries raised by the attendees in a detailed manner.
Syed Fayaz Ahmed, Assistant Coordinator also threw light on the various aspects and encouraged the participants for proper implementation of the programme.
Vikrant Singh, Nodal Officer, JKKN, extended the Technical Support for the trial phase of Mentoring portal. Mentoring Team of SAMAGRA SHIKSHA, Ritu Bansal, Samar Jamil, Vikas Khajuria, Sadia Yaqoob, Renu Bala are on job for Registration of District/Zones/Schools/Teachers and Students on the STEER Portal. More than 3800 PS Schools have been registered so far, as per portal.

KR Desk