HP govt scraps semester system in UG courses

The Himachal Pradesh government today decided to do away with semester system in under-graduate courses and revert to annual examination system.

We had set up a review committee headed by former vice chancellor to review RUSA (Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan) and it has recommended reverting back to annual examination system," Education Minister Suresh Bharadwaj said.

The RUSA was introduced in the state in 2013 and the BJP had assured to restore annual examination system in under graduate course at it was not suitable for hilly state like Himachal Pradesh with difficult topography and demographic variations, he added.

When asked about the extra burden on the Himachal Pradesh University in conducting the examinations, he said that varsity has been asked to draw up a plan to ensure that system worked smoothly and there was no delay in declaration of results.

Asserting that the thrust of the government was on qualitative improvement in education, Bharadwaj said that a decision has also been taken to start nursery classes in 3,000 schools from this year.

And all these schools would be equipped with library, he said, adding vocational courses would be started in 23 more schools bringing the number of schools offering vocational education to 43.

Concerned over students shifting from government to private schools, the government had constituted a committee to look into the matter and the committee identified absence of primary classes in government schools as one of the reasons.

Bharadwaj disclosed that the state would receive grant of Rs 810 crore under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) this year from the Ministry of Human Resource development (MHRD) for bringing qualitative improvement in education.

He said that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facility would be introduced in 125 schools and in the first phase and 613 schools would be connected to ICT through satellite.

All 312 left out schools in the state would be provided electricity while language labs would be made functional in 26 places while Rs 90 lakh have been allocated for infrastructure development of school in remote Bharari area of Mandi, the minister said.