Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday urged the community-oriented bodies and organisations to adopt schools in the eight aspirational districts of Uttar Pradesh and assured them of state government support in their educational ventures.

“I urge the community-oriented bodies such as Sampark Foundation, HCL Foundation and others to adopt the eight aspirational districts of UP,” he said while inaugurating a two-day ‘CII School Summit’ jointly organised by the department of secondary education, UP and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan here.

To drive home his point, Yogi said, “Under ‘Operation Kayakalp’ initiated in July 2017 by the state government, an effort was made to improve the infrastructure in UP government schools and they became cleaner and more hygienic institutions for imparting quality education.”

Highlighting the outcome of ‘Operation Kayakalp’ where infrastructures of thousands of UP government schools were strengthened only with the help of community funding and individual contribution, Adityanath said, “Out of 1.58 lakh government primary schools, 90,000 schools have benefited either by getting smart classes, boundary walls, toilets or furniture.”

“The result is there for everyone to see. Now parents have started sending their children to government schools. In the past two and a half years, 50 lakh additional students have enrolled in government schools. Presently 18 million children are studying in government primary and upper primary schools. Even our rural school children can do well provided they get opportunity and infrastructure,” he said.

To note, the Niti Aayog has identified 115 aspirational districts across India, including eight districts in UP.

Yogi said, “Aspirational districts have six parameters and education is one area that needs to be looked into. If we improve the education system in these districts, it will help them catch up with other progressing districts in the state.”

Deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma digitally inaugurated a smart solution (read smart classroom) and interacted with the teacher and students of a government school in Lucknow .

Vineet Nayar, chairman, CII School Summit 2019 and founder, Sampark Foundation, an NGO working in the primary education sector in the country, pledged to invest ₹1 billion (₹100 crore) in government schools of the state.

“We have already worked in 5,000 UP government schools and another 10,000 schools are to be covered now. We intend to cover 1.30 lakh government schools in UP,” he said.

“We have come out with a rechargeable audio device – a voice mascot called ‘Sampark Didi’ that delivers 112 researched lessons with songs, music and games. It is a listening and speaking catalyst for first-time English learners, which uses LSRW (listening, speaking, reading writing), a ‘whole language’ approach,” said Nayar.