Srinagar, Dec 16: In Jammu and Kashmir, around 28 percent of the school going students had no access to smartphones to attend online classes in the year 2021.
According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) report 2021, only 72.8 percent of the students studying in government and private schools were having at least one smart phone at their respective homes.
The report states that among the total number of students who were having the access the smart phones includes such 40.1 percent of students who were having the full access at all times to utilize it.
It further said that around 44.4 percent of the students said that they were having the access to smart phones ‘sometimes’ while 15.6 percent of students were inaccessible to utilize the smart phone services.
ASER said that across India, only 67.6 percent of the students were having at least one smartphone available at home out of which 27 percent were having access to it all the time, 47 percent with sometimes and 26.1 percent were inaccessible.
Pertinently, last year ASER has said that more than fifty percent students in Jammu and Kashmir were either lacking smart phones or were facing internet and connectivity issues post COVID-19 outbreak.
However, the educational institutes claim to have successfully conducted online classes and reached to almost all the students during the lockdown period via different platforms.
The ASER report of 2020 reveals that 23.4 percent of students studying in both private and government schools of Jammu and Kashmir were lacking the smartphones that were one of the main resources to attend the online lectures and access the learning resource material through the internet.
Need to create placement avenues for pass-out students: Dr Samoon
Jammu, Dec 16: Principal Secretary, Skill Development, Dr. Asgar Hassan Samoon on Thursday emphasized on the importance of linkage with industries for creating placement avenues for pass-outs.
He instructed for submitting a proposal for constitution of Institute Management Committees for the ITIs where no such committees are in place. He also directed for encouragement of Self Help Groups formed by ITI pass outs of different trades/sectors.
Dr Samoon made these remarks during an administrative inspection of the Directorate of Skill Development, Jammu.
Dr. Samoon took stock of sanctioned strength of the office, performance of officers and officials, disposal of correspondence through e-office, litigation status, expenditure under different heads against the budget provision, record maintenance in different sections and related issues.
He also visited different sections functioning in the Directorate and issued directions regarding placement of scanned files and furniture in separate rooms, installation of required logistics at conference hall besides auction of unserviceable items.
During an interaction session with the staff, Principal Secretary took notice of shortage of faculty in the institutes subordinate to Directorate of Skill Development including Government Polytechnics and ITIs.
In this regard, he suggested to start an educational hub from where subject experts from different trades as per availability can take e-classes of trainees belonging to field institutes having dearth of training staff.
Later, Dr. Samoon visited Centre for Invention Innovation, Incubation and Training at Government Polytechnic, Jammu, and had an interactive session with the trainees. He also witnessed demonstration of all machinery equipments installed by Tata Technologies in the Centre.
Principal Secretary also inspected offices of JK Board of Technical Education and Joint Directorate of Skill Development, Jammu, and issued on the spot directions to the concerned regarding repair, renovation and face lifting of the buildings.