Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated the ‘Sampark Smartshala-Smart Block’ program and stated that Uttar Pradesh had made a giant leap in the field of basic education over the past six years, and many schools which were on the verge of closure have been rejuvenated during the period because of strong will, determined effort, resources, technology and innovation. The inauguration event was held at Yogiraj Baba Gambhirnath Auditorium, Gorakhpur, on July 4.
Apart from CM Yogi Adityanath, the people present in the inauguration event are: Vineet Nayar, Founder Chairman of SAMPARK Foundation, MP Ravi Kishan Shukla, Deepak Kumar, ACS Education UP Government., DM Gorakhpur Krishna Karunesh, CDO Sanjay Meenaand and other senior education department officials. This program is a joint initiative of the Basic Education Department and Sampark Foundation.
CM Yogi Aditynath said during the event, “I am very pleased to have such a big-scale innovative program in our State. I am sure SAMPARK Foundation, given their expertise and dedication will make it a success and the children of Uttar Pradesh would immensely benefit from it”. CM also launched the magazine of the Sampark Foundation.
This program aims to update all Government primary schools into smart schools one block at a time. Under this initiative, Sampark Foundation will invest in:
- Installing Sampark TVs that have lesson plans, lesson videos, worksheets, gamified assessments, songs, and stories mapped with SCERT textbooks for classes KG to Five. This will work without the need for the Internet.
- Innovative TLMs to teach language and Math that makes teaching and learning easy.
- Teacher Training of all teachers in the smart pedagogy of “Sahi Kram Sahi Dhang” so that teachers can use the Sampark TV effectively to improve learning outcomes.
The goal of the ‘Sampark Smart Shala Smart Block’ program in every smart block is to improve learning outcomes by 30% in the first year itself. Sampark Smartshala is already working in 18000 schools in Uttar Pradesh in collaboration with the state Government.
Talking about the program, Vineet Nayar stated: “We hope to convert these 18000 govt schools into smart schools, one smart block at a time; we have committed an investment of 40 Crores for this initiative with a hope of touching the lives of 28 lakh children”.
Nayar added, “Smart classrooms will enable teachers to teach and engage with children through interactive learning. This has made the task of ‘teaching in the right way’ very easy and the learning environment in the classroom is energized with excitement”.
After 100 days of successful pilot implementation in Nagar Kshetra, the program has been extended to the Chargawan Block. Fifty-eight council schools in the city area and 68 council schools in Chargawan block are now equipped with LED TVs as well as with maths and english kits.
The program provides a comprehensive set of resources designed to support classroom transformation. These resources are carefully curated to align with the state curriculum and SCERT and are organized based on subjects and grade levels. State government education officers will support the activities and will closely monitor them to ensure the successful implementation of the program.
They include a TV Set for each school, a Sampark TV Device, a math and english kit with an audio box, the Sampark Smart Shala Application, 500 lesson plans, 1,100 lesson videos, 450 activities that utilize teaching-learning materials (TLMs), 2,000 subject-wise and class-wise worksheets, 3,000 assessment questions in the format of “Sampark Didi KeSawal” inspired by the popular TV show “Kaun Banega Crorepati” (KBC), Songs and experiment videos tailored explicitly for science subjects targeting grades 6-8, and a resource book for teachers.
These resources have been developed to enhance the learning experience in classrooms and provide valuable support to teachers in their teaching practices. These resources help teachers teach in the right structure.
During the event, CM Yogi Aditynath said that education is the foundation of society. He also highlighted the situation prior to 2017, where there were insufficient toilets, flooring, and drinking water facilities in the schools of the Basic Education Council. With around 1.34 crore children attending about 1.56 lakh schools, there was also a severe shortage of teachers in schools.
To address these issues, the government committed to improving the education system. In this regard, Mission Kayakalp was launched to transform schools, ensuring they had the proper infrastructure, including furniture, toilets, drinking water, smart classes, libraries, and digital libraries. As a result, 1.36 lakh schools have been rejuvenated, and the number of school-going children has increased to 1.91 crore.
CM Yogi emphasized that in the past, children attending basic schools lacked basic facilities; they used to go barefoot with no uniforms. However, today the government is giving them all the basic facilities.
The Chief Minister praised the Sampark Foundation for their efforts and commended their role in initiating the Smart Schools. He highlighted the importance of making education interesting and engaging for students.
He also appreciated that the Sampark Foundation is working towards this goal. He emphasized that by incorporating an emotional connection between teachers and students, the children’s enthusiasm for learning will naturally awaken.
