Govt takes revolutionary steps to improve educational, health standard: Chief Secretary Gilgit Baltistan

GILGIT (APP): Chief Secretary Gilgit Baltistan Muhiuden Wani said that the government of Gilgit Baltistan was taking revolutionary steps to improve the educational, health standard in the region.
Talking to journalists here in Gilgit, he said that GB government had brought radical changes in infrastructure of schools in addition to establishing IT labs and libraries. “GB government established IT bootcamps in government schools for our children,” he added.
He said that Taleem finance had been provided by Karakorum Cooperative Bank Limited (KCBL) for studying in top universities.
He said that the Career Fest was an important milestone in acquainting children of myriad available career options. Student high achiever awards were also given to deserving ones.
He said that students debating classes and sports festivals had been organized for their grooming.
He further stated that we had also focused on recruiting teachers.
He said that 400 ESTs have been hired while 100 tech fellows for computer and IT education have been recruited. He said that we had also developed Master Trainers with PDCN and now placed 43 newly inducted Principals from FPSC in various educational institutes.
He said that first time in Pakistan Robotics labs (Makers space) would be established in government middle schools of GB. Technology fellows will train students in this unique environment. 200 such labs will be established by the end of this year.
He said that process of solarazation of 181 schools is initiated, added that the schools would have sufficient energy for running the IT labs and other digital devices. CS GB said that It was a must step to maximize the success of our investment in IT lab and tech fellow teachers. He said that the whole process will be completed within 2 months.
Chief Secretary Gilgit Baltistan said that UNESCO under its emergency support program has sanctioned financial support for 9 flood affected schools in Diamer, adding that we would inshaAllah use the resources to rebuild the schools and solarize them. He said that in this connection an agreement will be signed soon.
He said that with the efforts of the government of Gilgit-Baltistan, Gilgit-Baltistan Rural Support Programme (GBRSP) on behalf of the government signed an MoU with Pakistan National Commission for UNESCO (PNCU), Ministry of Federal Education & professional Training, Islamabad to rehabilitate 09 flood damaged schools in Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan.
“In addition to IT labs,sports facilities and libraries now district administration all around GB are in competition to upgrade and renovate government schools”CS GB added.
He added that on the request of GB government Federal Government first time has established MDCAT centre in Gilgit to facilitate the students of GB.
He said that For the last few years GB kids of government schools were suffering due to inadequate number of teaching staff.
He said that we have tried to bridge this gap with massive merit based recruitments and quality training of teachers. To supplement this effort we have entered into partnership with KIPS academy Pakistan and brought top of the line teachers to teach substantive number of kids of government schools through evening coaching programs to elevate their standards and make their results competitive, he added. He said that KIPS will coach them in the evening classes.
Chief Secretary Gilgit Baltistan Muhiudeen Wani said that the text books for the upcoming academic year were purchased from National Book Foundation in advance., added that supply of the books is in progress and these books will placed in a dedicated warehouse in Gilgit and will be distributed to all district one week before commencement of the academic year 2023-24.He said that this exercise was done in order to save precious time of the students unlike what was experienced this year that students spent almost three months without books.
He said that for the promotion of art skills among the students of GB the National College of Arts (NCA) team led by the Vice Chancellor Mr Murtaza Jaffery on our request visited Gilgit last week for finalizing the establishment of NCA GB Campus..
He said that by the end of third week of December, NCA will establish a campus in chillmisshdaasa Gilgit and will immediately start short courses on designing and visual arts of two weeks to six months and in the meantime a full-fledged state of the art campus will be constructed in the same vicinity to accommodate the feeding cadre in the same campus for under graduate classes.
He said that the faculty of lahore campus of NCA will come and equip the students of GB with those skills which are modern and highly employable.
He said that besides education health sector is our top priority and adding that we have been facing acute shortage of consultant doctors in GB for many years.
He said that we tried many ways to bring best HR, but no consultant doctors were attracted on government salaries to work in hospitals of GB. “One special package was introduced few years back having salary of Rs 350,000 but again very few opted”.
He said that “we are trying a solution by hiring individual consultants through third party with a tax free salary of Rs.550,000 besides permission of in house practice in the evening in Govt hospitals in GB”.
“I hope it will be a bit of incentive for young consultants working in Pakistan to come and work in GB than to go to gulf”.Chief Secretary Gilgit Baltistan said.
He said that The government of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) on has launched the free meal and health improvement programme for students of primary schools in the region.
He said that the programme will improve child health and well-being and will eventually encourage the enrolment of students in schools. “Our goal is to make public schools more attractive than private schools for parents,” he added.
Chief secretary Mohyuddin Wani said the scope of school meal programme would be extended to all districts.
He said the programme had been launched in collaboration with Allah Wala Trust, a welfare body, adding nutritious food would be provided to schoolchildren six days a week.
He said facilities of vision, body biomass index and other basic health tests would also be available to students in schools.
Chief Secretary Gilgit Baltistan said that as far as facility of transportation is concerned in GB, October was good month for our daughter sisters and mother of Gilgit, Skardu, Ghezer, Hunza and Nagir cities because free Ride Pink buses have started moving on all major routes of these cities of GB. He said that this would reduce financial burden on women, better access and more security.
He said that the government of Gilgit-Baltistan has started considering banning the use of plastic shopping bags in order to prevent environmental pollution.
He added that a plan has been prepared to make Hunza a plastic-free district, phase is starting, in the next phase we will move towards banning plastic bags in Hunza district, in which we will take steps to raise awareness among the citizens on the use of non-woven bags.
He further said that making Hunza a plastic free district would be the best initiative and it would be a milestone.
He said that “GB government is committed to ensure environmental friendly disposal of waste. In this regards fencing of the open dump site at Chilmish Das will be completed in next four days. This will restrict the dumping activity only to the designated place, making it easy for GBWMC to cover the waste properly with soil. It will prevent stray and wild animals from scavenging the waste and spreading the hazard content. The fence will also make the Nomal/Naltar road safer for traffic by reducing the chances of accidents caused by stray animals.”