Jammu, Oct 22: Union Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh Wednesday felicitated school girl students, from five districts of his Lok Sabha constituency, by presenting a laptop each – from his personal resources – to the toppers in the Board examination of Class 10.
Quite a few of the topper school girls, who were invited to the Minister’s Trikuta Nagar residence this morning for breakfast and sweets distribution, hailed from far flung areas like Chhatroo and Paddar in district Kishtwar and Pogal in district Ramban.
This, Dr Jitendra said, could serve as a real ‘Diwali gift’ for those little girls for whom, over the last one-decade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had rolled out a series of schemes and initiatives for easy, accessible options to prepare for competitive exams but many of them sometimes found it difficult to afford certain essential gadgets for round the clock facility at home.
While presenting laptops to two topper girls each from the districts of Udhampur, Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar and Kathua, the Union Minister expressed happiness that the students felicitated were from little-known villages and towns of those districts. He said the laptops presented to students as a Diwali gift would encourage them to continue their academic pursuits.
While interacting with the students, Dr Jitendra said, in the last 11 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government ensured ease of education and preparation for students in view of a surge in their aspiration.
“The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) has given students freedom to choose subjects according to their aptitude. The policy has given them wings to fly high in pursuit of their dreams and aspirations. The students today are no longer prisoners of their parental choice of subjects. They now enjoy the freedom to make a choice out of a broad range of options, depending on their aptitude and evolving preferences. There is true democratisation of opportunities and aspirations in this country today,” he said.
The Union Minister said he was prompted to start this novel tradition of felicitating and facilitating girl students after learning from his experience in the ministries which dealt with students and youth. He revealed that out of around 1.75 lakh registered StartUps in India at present, nearly fifty to sixty thousand were women led StartUps.
“As for Civil Services or IAS examinations, even this year all the three All India toppers were girls while in the 2022 Civil Services Exam, 11th All India topper was a girl from Poonch Degree College. In 2014, 15 and 16, for three consecutive years, the All-India topper in the civil Services exam was a girl. Even in the Space sector, the important projects like Aditya L1 and Chandrayaan 3 had women in the leading role,” he noted.
Urging the students to leverage technology for their academic growth and betterment of society, Dr Jitendra said, the government also ensured democratisation of opportunities for students belonging to all sections of the society and all genders.
He said that the objective was to equip them with requisite skills so that they could stay fully-empowered. “NEP 2020 is a modern, transformative policy for India’s education system, focusing on access, equity, quality, affordability and accountability. The government is making huge investments in youth to prepare them to take on the leadership of the country in the times to come. The youth will be the architects of a developed India as envisioned by Prime Minister Modi, when India celebrates the centenary of her Independence in 2047,” Dr Jitendra said.
