The Union Human Resource Development Minister Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani visited Gujarat on Friday on her first visit to the state after taking charge. During her visit, Smt Irani took part in “Shala Praveshotsav” (school enrolment festival), an annual event organised by the state government.

Smt. Irani, a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, also took part in another government event ‘Kanya Kelavani Yatra’ (an event to encourage girls’ education). She enrolled a group of girls in a primary school in Kudasan village near Gandhinagar.

Smt. Irani later inaugurated a smart school in Kudasan. Anganvadi workers and school students were also honoured by the Union Minister.

The ‘Praveshotsav’ initiative was started 12-years ago by the then Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi and is celebrated every year across the state to increase school enrolment in government primary schools.

Earlier in the morning, she met Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and discussed various education programmes, especially those focusing on girls, launched by the state government.

The Minister also visited the Pandit Din Dayal Petroleum University in Gandhinagar. Here she emphasised the need for rural internship for college students and using college campus during holidays for outreach like schooling/teaching for off campus students. Smt. Irani highlighted the need for mobilising funds from PSUs for supporting research in universities.

She also met the officials of Education Department of Gujarat government and appreciated the best practices in the field of vocational education, gunotsav, and child cohort monitoring. She exhorted them to use the MOOC extensively.

The Minister also visited IIT, Gandhinagar and highlighted the need to functionalise the Council for industry and higher education, and collaboration for research and enhance employability of graduates. Many students are doing innovations, their work will be profiled on the MHRD website, she added.

Source: Press Information Bureau