State’s Super 100 scheme to soon train 400 students

GURGAON: The state government is planning to expand the Super-100 initiative to help 400 students prepare for competitive exams, education minister Kanwar Pal Gujjar announced on Thursday.
Launched in 2018, the initiative enables free-of-cost residential coaching for competitive exams such as IIT-JEE and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for students of government schools.The initiative, which was introduced with the help of Vikalp Foundation, started with 100 students being picked for the training. This was later increased to 200 students.
Last year, officials of the state education department had said the scheme will be expanded to 600 students annually, but the batch numbers didn’t change.
The Haryana government also runs the Buniyad programme, under which 4,500 students each from classes 9 and 10 get online coaching to clear the screening test for Super-100.
The minister made the announcement while inaugurating the new building of Government Girls’ Senior Secondary chool in Arjun Nagar on Thursday.
He also inaugurated two new blocks, and an IT lab at the Government Senior Secondary School in Islampur.
At the inauguration event, the minister also agreed to consider the demand of the locals to designate the Arjun Nagar school as PM Shris (Prime Minister’s Schools of Rising India).
“If the school building meets all the norms of becoming a PM Shri, I will forward the proposal to the department. The school building looks better than most of the college buildings around here,” he said.
The new school building has been constructed at a cost of Rs 3.7 crore.
The minister said that the government has prepared a six-point target for all government schools in the state. These include building a pathway to the school and a boundary wall, setting up dual desks, availability of potable water, washroom and a sports ground. The department will provide up to Rs 25 lakh to the school management committees to meet these needs, he said.
He also asked government school teachers to come up with ideas for innovative teaching instead of sole focus on completing the syllabus.
He said that students trust their teachers more than their parents, so they should be dedicated towards imbibing better values in simpler methods.
The education minister spoke about the vocational education programme being run by the department for students of classes 6 and said students are being provided kits worth Rs 17,000 for learning specific skills.
“Our students are learning about media, telecom, healthcare, food processing and sports through the programme,” he said.