Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami looks at a model during the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the hostel at Saraswati Vidya Mandir, Manduwala, in Dehradun on Tuesday. (ANI Photo)

The Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, said on Tuesday that private schools will also be linked to the Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK) to improve the school education system. VSK is a digital infrastructure ecosystem that tracks and analyses data about student enrolment, attendance, academic performance, and teacher training to help administrators monitor school education progress.

Stating that Uttarakhand is the first state in the country to implement the Gujarat model of VSK, the Chief Minister said that about 16,000 schools have been linked to the initiative, and soon all the state’s private schools will also be linked to it. He said that 141 PM Shri schools and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Residential Schools are being constructed in the state, while virtual classrooms have also been arranged in 500 schools in all 13 districts.

He said that NCERT books have been implemented in all government schools to ensure quality education. The state CM said that scholarships are being given to meritorious students of Class 6 to 12 of government and private schools of the state, while a scheme has been started to send meritorious students of Class 10 and 12 on India tour.

He also said that the state government is paying special attention to sports in the state, and an initiative has been taken to provide government jobs to players who win medals at the national level. The CM made these announcements while speaking in a programme at Saraswati Vidya Mandir in Dehradun district’s Manduwala village.