Lucknow: A team of officials from the Haryana govt on Monday commended UP’s educational reforms, particularly infrastructure development, teacher training, digital and smart education, and its efforts to improve learning outcomes.Led by chairperson, Haryana assembly education committee, Lakshman Singh Yadav, the delegation was in Lucknow to study UP’s school education system, infrastructure development, quality improvement measures and educational innovations.During the meeting with UP education officials, the delegation was apprised of the innovations and reforms undertaken by UP govt via a presentation that covered programmes like Operation Kayakalp, Project Alankar, CM Composite Vidyalaya, Mission NIPUN, Learning by Doing etc.Additional chief secretary, basic and secondary education, UP, Partha Sarthi Sen Sharma said, “The presentation was appreciated and it was felt that both states should try to look for replication of the good efforts from each other.”The presentation covered school infrastructure strengthening, teacher training, digital and smart education, implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, vocational education, and technology-driven monitoring and accountability systems.UP officials highlighted the infrastructural transformation of schools achieved through Operation Kayakalp, where almost 1.3 lakh schools were saturated with 19 child friendly basic facilities including clean drinking water, functional and separate toilets for boys and girls, electrification, handwashing units, ramps, boundary walls and kitchen facilities. The committee was also briefed on the CM Model Composite School Scheme, under which 150 state-of-the-art schools are planned at a cost of ₹4,500 crore. These institutions will offer education from pre-primary to Class XII and feature Dream Labs, robotics and machine learning facilities, smart classrooms, language and computer labs, sports infrastructure, mini stadiums, libraries, solar panels, rainwater harvesting systems and CCTV-based monitoring. Additionally, 75 CM Abhyudaya Composite Schools are being upgraded with modern facilities.In secondary education, the Haryana delegation was apprised of the Project Alankar that is aimed at strengthening infrastructure through the development of laboratories, smart classrooms, libraries, Wi-Fi, CCTV systems, solar power facilities and multipurpose halls.Officials noted improvements in key educational indicators, including retention rates, gross enrolment ratios and transition rates at the higher secondary level, while the dropout rate at the primary level has reached zero.The presentation also showcased UP’s push towards digital learning. Smart classrooms have been established in 37,266 primary schools and 3,775 secondary schools, while information and communication technology (ICT) laboratories are operational in 33,800 primary and 3,307 secondary schools. More than 16,000 digital learning resources are available on the DIKSHA platform, and teachers are being trained in digital literacy, computational thinking and artificial intelligence.Officials further highlighted efforts to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy through NIPUN Bharat Mission, Balvatika programmes and school readiness initiatives. Vocational and pre-skilling programmes, Dream Labs, DIET Centres of Excellence, Vidya Samiksha Kendra and digital monitoring platforms were also showcased.In higher education, the officials were briefed about free smartphones and tablets being distributed to students studying in higher education institutions so as to technically empower them. They were also apprised of initiatives like the Rani Lakshmi Bai Scooty Scheme to provide free electric scooters to eligible female students, and CM’s Indian Knowledge System Global Excellence Fund to give global recognition to the Indian knowledge tradition.
