Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir were declared first and second most proactive states respectively in north India by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in adopting new initiatives in education.
"The MHRD has declared Jammu and Kashmir as the second most proactive state after Himachal Pradesh in adopting new initiatives in education," state education minister Altaf Bukhari said.
Bukhari said the announcement in this regard was made at the Northern Zonal Conference of Education Department held here today.
He said Jammu and Kashmir's performance has been highly appreciated for actively implementing the new initiatives in the education sector.
The minister said the government is committed to expand the reach of quality education in every nook and corner of the state under the leadership of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
He equally hailed the contribution of the private sector in furthering the government's agenda of making quality education available and affordable for the students.
Meanwhile, a review meeting was held to monitor the progress regarding implementation of various MHRD schemes in north Indian states.
The meeting was chaired by Union Secretary, MHRD, Anil Swarup.
The representatives of different states provided the details about the progress of the activities related to school education in their respective states, an official spokesman said.
Swarup appreciated the states about the progress made in different schemes and stressed on expediting their effective implementation.
He also reviewed implementation of centrally-sponsored schemes and asked the representatives of states to gear up for achieving the objectives of schemes.
The meeting also discussed road map to achieve goals in infrastructure building, training, DIETs and up-gradation of school education.
Swarup expressed keen interest in upgrading the infrastructure of school education in J&K and hoped that it is one of the priority sectors of the state, the spokesman said.
"Idea to meet here is that states with similar or difficult things do and learn from each other," Swarup said.