Lucknow: A meeting was held at Raj Bhavan under the chairmanship of the Governor of the state, Anandiben Patel, for the implementation of the Space Science Education Promotion Program ‘Avishkar’. In the meeting, the Governor observed the presentation prepared by Prof. Rajiv Manohar of Lucknow University with the participation of Lucknow University, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University and Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University, Lucknow, with the aim of increasing awareness about space information among the students of Uttar Pradesh and providing benefits of the programs being run by the Government of India in this direction.
On this occasion, the Governor said that a strong model should be prepared for the program and work should be started soon. She said that the model should be made in such a way that it is inspiring for the students and they should come forward to join the program for easy space knowledge promotion. She directed to select students for participation in the program at the initial level through a test. She also directed to declare the results within two days, fixing the date of July 15, 2024 for the test.
While instructing to select the students as per the merit of the test results, he also directed to start the program on 22 July 2024. The Governor also directed to conduct training programs for all the mentor teachers before starting the space promotion of the students. In the discussions held in the meeting, it was decided that on 02 and 03 July, training of mentor teachers will be held at Lucknow University for this program.
While presenting the program in the meeting, Prof. Rajiv Manohar of Lucknow University said that in accordance with the Governor’s intention to make Uttar Pradesh a hub of space education, this program is being started with the important objective of giving information to the students of the state about the various space programs being run by the Government of India and ISRO, to make the students of the state participate in them and to make the students avail their benefits.
At the initial level, ten teachers each from Lucknow University and AKTU and five teachers from Khwaja Moinuddin Bhasha University will be made mentors. Five teachers will be made mentors per school from ten secondary schools of Lucknow. Thus, there will be 25 teacher mentors at the university level and 50 teacher mentors at the secondary school level. Each teacher will train 20 students. There is no fee for this training.
The Vice Chancellors of the participating universities also presented suggestions in the meeting. Additional Chief Secretary Secondary Education Deepak Kumar informed the Governor about various programs for enhancing space knowledge of children and teachers being equipped with tablets etc. provided by the state government and said that four to five teachers from each district will be added for this program.
Additional Director of Secondary Education Department Bhagwati Singh gave information about the National Invention Scheme to the Governor and suggested to link it with this program. He told that this scheme implemented by the Central Government has been approved for 9600 children of the state, which is to be implemented soon.
Additional Chief Secretary, Governor Dr. Sudhir Mahadev Bobde, Special Officer Education Dr. Pankaj L. Johny, selected members from the participating universities and other officials were present in the meeting.
