Minister reviews secondary education reforms progress

Prayagraj: UP minister of state (independent charge) for secondary education, Gulab Devi, reviewed the functioning and ongoing initiatives of the secondary education department during a meeting held at Circuit House in Prayagraj on Monday. Senior officials of the department and representatives of the UP Board were present during the review meeting.During the meeting, Board secretary Bhagwati Singh gave a detailed presentation on the board’s activities, achievements, progress of various schemes and ongoing construction works in the board office. The minister appreciated several reforms introduced by the board to strengthen transparency and improve convenience for students.The minister commended the geo-fencing system introduced during intermediate practical examinations through a mobile application for monitoring examiners’ attendance and the digital arrangement for immediate uploading of marks on the portal. The minister also lauded the provision of reserve sets of question papers for emergency situations during board examinations and the confidential centre-wise numeric coding on every page of question papers for security.The decision to shift answer sheets to A4 size and inclusion of enhanced security features in marksheets-cum-certificates also received appreciation. The minister further commended the initiative of making textbooks easily available to students through online delivery on e-commerce platform Amazon.During the meeting, officials were directed to ensure timely availability of textbooks and widely publicise the online delivery facility. Instructions were also issued to strictly implement the academic calendar and ensure regular teaching and co-curricular activities in schools.The minister asked officials to complete ongoing construction works within the stipulated time and make all necessary preparations before schools reopen on July 1 after summer vacations. Stress was also laid on ensuring transparency and timely execution of all student-centric works.