Apna Vidyalaya: Community engagement in developing sustainable model for educational improvement

Value based education plays a pivotal role in the development of society as a whole. It is essential to develop a strong educational infrastructure and framework to provide quality education to students. With this objective, the government is taking new initiatives to improve the education sector.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”, the quote of Winston Churchill is apt when it comes to giving back to society. It is the act of contributing to the well-being and improvement of the community at large. The State government is providing everyone an opportunity to become an ‘Adopter’ and contribute to a sustainable model for educational improvement.

With an objective to create a synergistic partnership between public representatives, administrative leaders, and skilled professionals to contribute collectively for the improvement of government schools, ‘Apna Vidyalaya’: The Himachal School Adoption Programme (HSAP) has been initiated by the Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu led state government.

My School-My Pride campaign under Apna Vidyalay programme, will encourage individuals and organizations to adopt a school of their choice to provide career counselling and guidance, holding extra/special classes for remedial teaching to coaching the students for various examinations, training them in Yoga and engaging them in various community support services, donating money to the school for creating infrastructure, sponsoring an event, providing scholarships to meritorious students, helping MDM programme etc.

Under the programme, ‘Giving back to society’ initiative will provide an opportunity to the School’s Academic Support Team to teach the students without taking any payment or honorarium. Retired teachers or other employees, professionals, housewives or any other member of the society will be encouraged to come forward and become a member of this team. These Adopters will support the school in case there is shortage of teachers or when the teacher is on leave. There will be a proper monitoring system for the same and SMCs will also be taken into confidence. The Non-Academic team will support in sports, co-curricular activities, skill training, arts, crafts, painting, music, theatre and dance, career counseling and guidance etc.

Apart from this, the dignitaries will be requested to adopt at least one government school of their choice anywhere in the state and to become the School Patron. All Members of Parliament both in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha from Himachal, all MLAs, Gazetted Class one and class two officers of the state government such as DC, SP, DFO, CMO, SDM, BDO, BMO, DSP etc will adopt at least one school each. The school patrons will suggest ways of improvement to the faculty and SMCs. They will be kept informed by the school head about the progress of the students and their achievements.

Similarly, all the officers in the education department placed in secretariat and directorate, deputy directors and district programme officers and District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) coordinators, Principal and faculty in State Council of Education for Research and Training (SCERT) and officers of HP board of school education shall adopt one school and act as Mentors.

The Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) will develop an online portal dedicated to the Apna Vidyalaya programme which will be available in public domain to ensure accountability as well as enable online and real time measurement, monitoring and corrective actions.

The HSAP has another component of Systematic Adolescent Management and Value Addition Dialogue (SAMVAD) under which multiple departments will educate school-going adolescents about various aspects that will contribute to their personal development and empowerment. It includes moral values and experience sharing, drug awareness and prevention, nutrition and well-being, legal knowledge, girl empowerment schemes etc. Best performing schools will be rewarded at the State and District level. 

The concept of “Adoption of Government Schools” emerges as a unique initiative to enhance the quality of education in alignment with National Education Policy (NEP)-2020. The public education system, a vast and intricate network, serves over 68 percent of the student population nationwide, and in Himachal, more than 55 percent of students are enrolled in government schools. This Programme will surely improve the educational environment in government schools with active participation of the society at large.

“Our government is working with the motto of Vyavastha Parivartan and Apna Vidyalaya programme aims to foster civic duty, strengthen school vision and community engagement, mentoring schools and developing sustainable model for educational improvement,” said the Chief Minister.