Himachal Pradesh education minister Rohit Thakur on Saturday said that state government will spend over ₹10,000 crore in the education sector in the coming financial year.

“State government is committed to developing a quality, inclusive and employment-oriented education system. In the coming financial year, nearly 17% of the total state budget will be spent on the education sector, amounting to more than ₹10,000 crore,” said Thakur while addressing a gathering in Bilaspur.

The minister was there to lay the foundation stone of an examination block to be constructed at a cost of ₹1 crore at Government Senior Secondary School, Panjgain under Sadar sub-division of Bilaspur district. On this occasion, he announced that the school would be included as a CBSE School of Excellence in the next phase.

He said that in accordance with the National Education Policy, English medium has been implemented in classes 1 and 2, and from the upcoming academic session, it will be extended to classes 3 to 5 as well, so that students can be made globally competitive.

Calling educators the backbone of quality education, he said that nearly 8,000 teachers have been recruited in various categories, including a record batch-wise recruitment of 4,000 teachers. He informed that the recruitment process of 937 TGTs has been completed and they will join schools before the next academic session, while 1,800 JBTs will be recruited in a phased manner. In order to strengthen higher education, a proposal for the recruitment of 387 assistant professors in colleges has been sent to the Himachal Pradesh State Service Commission.

He also informed that with the objective of further strengthening quality education, the state government has decided to implement the Central Board of Secondary Education curriculum in 130 government schools of Himachal. In these schools, CBSE curriculum will be taught from classes 1 to 12, connecting students with a nationally competitive and modern education system.