Haryana Govt Schools To Give Extra 1-5 Marks To Class 9 Students For Planting, Nurturing Tree

Haryana's Education Minister, Kanwar Pal, announced a novel initiative on Thursday, stating that students attending state government schools who plant a tree during their 9th-grade year and nurture it until their 12th-grade year will be eligible for an additional 1 to 5 marks in their 12th-grade final assessments. The minister emphasized that these extra marks will be granted based on the well-being of the planted trees. A comprehensive proposal outlining the specifics of this initiative will be released shortly.

Minister Kanwar Pal highlighted the underlying intention behind this move, aiming to instill a sense of environmental responsibility and social consciousness within students. He shared these insights during his leadership of a meeting with school education officials at Shiksha Sadan in Panchkula. Additionally, he issued directives to the Forest Department to ensure a consistent supply of plants to schools. Furthermore, he suggested that the Director of the School Education Department appoint liaison officers in each school to collaborate with forest department personnel.

The minister disclosed that the student population in 9th grade across the state amounts to approximately 1.93 lakh individuals. During the meeting, concerns were raised regarding instances of breach in mobile device management software on tablets provided by the Haryana government to students. By circumventing this software, students were able to access websites and content beyond the educational scope, which the software was initially designed to limit. In response, Minister Pal instructed officials to identify these students, take strict actions against them, and promptly reclaim the tablets.

While acknowledging that the occurrences of software breaches are minimal, accounting for less than 0.5% of the distributed tablets, Minister Kanwar Pal stressed the importance of effectively communicating the consequences to students in order to prevent any potential misconduct in the future. He appealed to parents to oversee their children's tablet usage and urged officials to closely monitor such incidents to prevent their escalation.

Minister Pal underscored the larger goal of bridging the digital learning divide for the majority of economically disadvantaged students attending government schools. He explained that this initiative intends to provide equitable opportunities, especially to students from underprivileged backgrounds who might lack access to devices like smartphones and tablets. As part of this effort, the Haryana government has already distributed free tablets to students in grades 10 through 12 attending government schools.