Project Zimedari, a household name in Kupwara

An Innovation for revolutionising the Education by Kupwara district administration

By: Javeed Abdullah

Twitter: @the_news_21

Srinagar: Education being the strongest source of revolutionising the livelihood of every individual and making the future of contemporary and coming generations depends upon its flexibility, vision, mission, and appealing approach. The challenges in the field are many more in itself and with the other partners in this field.

Many steps have been taken and are being taken to revolutionise the system. Our glorious past has put forward a different message to us which is – the teaching and learning process under the shades of Chinar trees, the learning under open space, the schools having a very low infrastructure and no proper matting, not having sufficient teachers, one teacher for three to four subjects and not having separate classrooms and many more.

But the present-day scenario is entirely different due to many reasons. The competition starts from the family members. Kids of the same family reading in different schools. The approaches of pedagogues with their students. The attachment and the care of different HOI’s towards their institutions. The facility in the schools etc.

This has raised the competition among the students in choosing the institution as a centre of learning. And it has been seen as a challenge among the family members to send their wards for better education as education is becoming the most challenging factor now. 

The district administration of Kupwara as an innovation has put forward Project Zimedari in the field of education for revolutionising the education sector in the district. The project was welcomed by the Chief Education Officer (CEO) Kupwara Abdul Hamid Fani, principals, zonal education officers and all the teaching and non-teaching staff of the district.

Zimedari is a revolutionising platform where schools can be made in accordance with the demands of the modern times. 

The project Zimedari is spread over six thematic areas like, academics, basic infrastructure, co-curricular activities, extra-curricular activities, social and emotional learning, and human resource development. These areas have 85 indicators for holistic development and performance. The areas under the Project Zimedari have been ranked based on the performance attained across these 85 indicators and have been ranked in four-point colour depiction scale like Red, Orange, Yellow and Green. The colour depicting Red shows (Poor Performance, and needs review for detailed intervention). The colour depicting Orange shows (Average performance, and needs focused intervention). The Yellow colour shows (Good performance and needs target intervention) and the colour Green shows (Excellent performance and needs to be continued).

There was a clear timeline for the completion of the project and the district and zonal level teams have been made. Gayoor Ahmad Bhat and Manzoor Ahmad Khan have been designated as the coordinator and assistant-coordinator by the CEO Kupwara, Abdul Hamid Fani.

The CEO Kupwara as being the most dedicated and very inspirational officer who believes in the scale and ranking system, likes to be at rank 1 or 2 in all the assignments of the government or the department. Training was given to the evaluators by Firdous, a member of the core team, coordinator, assistant coordinator and the members of the Piramal Foundation.

The teaching and non-teaching faculty of the district have taken it as a challenge and by donating from their personal pockets as a missionary zeal to decorate the schools, infrastructure, and other components mentioned in the project. The Kitchen Gardens have been set up in the majority of the schools of the district.

Classrooms have been decorated, the artistic capabilities of both the teachers and the students came out and paintings having the concept of BALA have been designed on the walls of the school.  The teacher’s profile has been put up in every school by mentioning the names, qualifications, and other information of both teaching and non-teaching faculty.

The concept of the competition emerged amongst the schools to a larger extent and the cleanliness was up to the mark. The focus on academics only, has now shifted to other parts of the Teaching learning process as holistic development of the child. The curricular activities, co-curricular activities, ICT, teacher-student relations grow up maximum. 

This challenging and most innovative revolutionising project for the development of education in the district is keenly being monitored by Sagar Dattatray Doifode, IAS Deputy Commissioner Kupwara and Abdul Hamid Fani Chief Education Officer Kupwara.

During this whole process of revolutionising education system in the district the PRI’s and other officer who were on visit to district Kupwara felt happy while assessing the school system and many PRIs discussed in their meetings also wrote on their social networking sites “Thanks to DC Kupwara and CEO Kupwara for revolutionising education system in the district, Aaj 60 Saal Ka Budha Bhi School Ka Look Daik Ke School Jana Chahta Hai”.

The assessment of the schools has been completed and during present day winter vacations majority of the teachers are visiting schools to look after its surroundings and infrastructure. 

During my recent training at SKICC Srinagar regarding two days’ workshop on Digital Transformation of Education in Jammu and Kashmir vision 2025 by UNICEF and Move Beyond there were many officers, officials and stakeholders from various states.

One of the projects carrying 60 indicators which has been taken by the administration at Gujarat has been discussed there, though that had brought a very good change in their education system, but in its response, I discussed the Zimedari Project with 85 indicators that seems more appealing and beneficial in making our future more glorious.

Present day in homes and shops people are discussing Zimedari as a household name. They now believe that anything is possible, but it needs determination and consistency, like Zimedari made our school system. Now we all are the stakeholders of Zimedari as these schools belong to us. I Hope this may continue for the days to come for our future generation. 

About the Author:  Javeed Abdullah is a teacher by profession and can be reached at javeedwrites378@gmail.com