Jalandhar, October 25
While thousands of teachers in the state are still living sans their salaries, schools lie in ramshackle conditions and unrest among school staff, the declaration of the proposed education policy by the education minister surely brought in a some hope today (whether false or genuine would be seen later).

Formed under the Chairmanship Dr SP Singh, former Vice Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University, the first interim report of the Education Policy of Punjab was handed over to the Education Minister, Sewa Singh Sekhwan, who formally released it to the press.

Speaking on the occasion, Sekhwan said his main stress would be raising the bar of school education in the state so that children from private schools can also join government schools and to implement the Library Act as soon as possible.The prominent proposals made in the policy include proposal to make all the future recruitments of teachers on permanent basis (doing away with the contractual system) and regularisation of those already working on contractual basis and ensuring the presence of all children in the age group of three to 14 years in schools. A state recruitment board is also likely to be set up with single nomenclature and similar grade.

Other proposals included ensuring 240 days of teaching in all schools, policy for reduction of holidays to 40 (with only 10 gazetted holidays) and implementation of biometric attendance for teachers across the state.

According to the new policy, teachers will have to clear the Teacher Eligibility Test and it will be mandatory for every teacher to serve in rural areas for at least five years.

Another prominent issue discussed was the bringing of school teachers of all cadres (coming under different bodies like Zila Parishad, ULB etc.) under the purview of the government where the funding will be by different regulatory bodies but their policies and rules will be on the basis of a common policy under the state education department.

The flip side to the story is that the policy proposes the setting up of many newer directorates and bodies (body for educational research, a NAAC like body for schools, a body to regulate private aided schools, a state level body to check and regulate schools and a separate directorate for vocational education) even when the many different existing bodies had not been of much help to address the grievances and problems of teachers and students.

The policy will soon be presented to the cabinet minister.

Jalandhar, October 25
The much-awaited Mai Bhago Scheme brought happiness among the girl students here today as 80 students of the Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Nehru Garden, received the perfect Diwali gift from the Education Minister, Sewa Singh Sekhwan, here today.

Under the scheme, cycles will be distributed to l lakh and 50 thousand girls studying in senior secondary classes (plus one and two) of the state. Bringing cheers to 14,200 students in the district, the distribution process started with the students of the school.

Sekhwan said by the next year the scheme will also be extended to students of classes ninth and tenth. He said girls are a very important to our society and progressive education and betterment of girls will also go a long way to solve the problem of skewed sex ratio in Punjab.

The scheme is meant for all the students of classes plus one and two in Punjab and cycles will be distributed to the girls irrespective of the distance of their homes from the schools or whether they already own a vehicle.