New technologies are key to modern education in order to stay abreast of development trends, said Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, UAE.

“The world outside school has now changed. The technology has taken the centre stage in education system,” said Sheikh Abdullah, adding that teachers must focus on technologies to make children learn faster.

“The goal of a new education system now is to make children innovative and creative,”  he said.

Sheikh Abdullah further said amid the rapid changes in the information technology, teaching should embrace innovation to make classroom more interesting and creative.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has declared Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir as the most proactive states in north India for adopting its education initiatives.

“The MHRD has declared Jammu and Kashmir as the second most proactive state after Himachal Pradesh in adopting new initiatives in education,” said Jammu and Kashmir education minister Altaf Bukhari.

According to Bukhari, the performance of Jammu and Kashmir has been highly appreciated for implementing the new initiatives related to education sector actively. The State Government is committed to expand the reach of quality education in every part of the state under the leadership of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, added Bukhari.

The minister has also appreciated the private sector’s contribution to take ahead the government’s agenda of making quality education available and affordable for the students.

Meanwhile, representatives of different states participated in recently held review meeting to provide the details about their respective State’s progress in school education related activities, an official spokesman said. The meeting was chaired by Union Secretary, MHRD, Anil Swarup who appreciated the states for their progress made in different schemes and stressed on expediting their effective implementation.

Swarup also reviewed the implementation of centrally-sponsored schemes and asked the representatives of states to gear up for achieving the objectives of schemes. The meeting also discussed the roadmap 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.