Port Blair, Oct. 19: It was a proud moment for the top rank holder students of AISSE & AISSCE (Academic year 2019-20 and 2021-22), when they were honoured by Admiral D K Joshi, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, NM, VSM (Retd.), Hon’ble Lt. Governor, A&N Islands and Vice-Chairman, Islands Development Agency at a felicitation function organized by Education Department at Raj Niwas today. The Chief Secretary, A&N Administration, Shri Keshav Chandra, IAS, the Adhyaksha, ZPSA, Smt. Pramila Kumari, Chairperson, PBMC, Smt. Kavitha Udhaya Kumar, DGP, Shri Neeraj Thakur, IPS, senior Officers of A&N Administration, parents and students were present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, the Lt Governor congratulated the rank holder students for coming out with flying colours in the CBSE exams. He showered praises on Education Department for maintaining the quality of education despite the COVID challenges. This, he said, has been evident from the fact that the percentage of different education parametres in Isles were higher compared to the national average. He said, the pass percentage of different streams has also increased. The Lt. Governor complimented the Education Department for its constant efforts in bringing down the school dropout rate in A&N Islands.
The Lt. Governor mentioned that during his interaction with the students while presenting the prizes, the students shared their aspirations to take up varied careers of their choice including medicine and forensic science. This, the Lt. Governor said, shows the exposure and ambition of the present generation in choosing different fields. He further said that he is happy to know that the Island students are pursuing higher education in some of the top & reputed colleges in mainland. Stating this as a great achievement, the Lt Governor said, it has been possible only due to the hard work of our students, guidance of their parents and above all the contribution of the teachers. He also had a word of praise for the parents for maintaining the motivational level and providing all kinds of moral support to their children to deal with competitive environment.
The Lt. Governor presented Medals and Certificates to the rank holders of AISSE & AISSCE (all streams) for the academic year 2019-20 & 2021-20 on the occasion. He also presented the 'Ajay Mathew Memorial Gold Medal' to Ms. Anjali of K.V. No-2, Minnie Bay, the 1st Rank Holder of AISSCE-2022, who secured 99.2 % in Class XII (Science). This was followed by presentation of Trophy to the 'Best Schools in A&N Islands'.
In his address, the Chief Secretary said that under the leadership of Hon’ble Lt. Governor, the Education Department in these remote Islands has shown excellent achievements. Despite various challenges in remote Islands, the emphasis of Lt. Governor on imparting quality education has shown results, as schools in the remote areas are also making exemplary progress by producing astounding results. Sharing the statistics about the achievements in Education Sector, the Chief Secretary disclosed that the pass percentage especially in class 12th is higher than the national average which shows how dedicatedly our teachers are working in remote areas despite various geographical constraints. The gross access ratio in primary education is 95.20 percent which is higher than the national average while the student-teacher ratio in Senior Secondary Schools is 1:10 which, he said is best in the country. The Chief Secretary said, the Administration is going to recruit more teachers and with this, the student-teacher ratio will further improve.
Welcoming the Lt. Governor and others present on the occasion, the Commissioner-cum- Secretary, Education, Shri Nikhil Kumar, IAS stated that the Education Department is providing quality education through 329 Government Schools and other Private Schools covering the length & breadth of these Islands. He further informed that the Department has developed a portal PAHAL (Plan for Attaining Holistic Learning and Achieving Learning Outcomes) which enables different level users to design the remedial interventions. In addition to this, the Department has also developed Vidhya Pravesh a three months modules for Class I to overcome learning gaps. The Department has also developed QR Code enabled teaching-learning material for pre-primary students. In addition, 2500 online educational contents have been developed by the Department and the same has been uploaded on YouTube channel “AN Education Dept Andaman & Nicobar Admn” which can be accessed by the students and parents anytime, anywhere. The Department has taken dedicated efforts to implement Vidhya Pravesh, Balvatika and PAHAL in A&N Islands.
The award for the Best Secondary School in urban area was bagged by Navy Children School, Minnie Bay while the Best Secondary School in Rural area was awarded to JNV Chouldari. Navy Children School, Port Blair was also adjudged the Best Senior Secondary School in urban area and Crescent Public School, Wimberlygunj secured the award for Best Senior Secondary School in rural area. The award for Best Administration School in South Andaman went to Govt. Sr. Sec. School, Swaraj Dweep-3 while GSSS Oralkatcha bagged the Best Administration School in North & Middle Andaman District. The Best Administration School in Nicobar District was awarded to GSSS Sawai, Car Nicobar. The Overall Best Senior Secondary School in A&N Islands was awarded to Navy Children School, Port Blair.
Proposing the vote of thanks, the Secretary (Education), Ms. Veditha Reddy congratulated all the rank holders for their achievements and motivated them to keep up the same in all their future endeavours.