Shri Virbhadra Singh, Honourable Chief Minister, Himachal Pradesh launched the integrated Department of Education website and the Swayamsidham web portal on 27th August 2015 at Shimla. These portals are available at http://himachal.nic.in/education and http://rmsahimachal.nic.in

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister congratulated the Department of Education for the initiative and said that the project envisages to improve the learning experience and to build the capacity of teachers. He said that it was a step which enables all the schools to continuously engage themselves in self improvement and accountability and that it will also help the students to online search for the answers to their questions. Besides, it would help as a guiding tool for reference, research, analysis, synthesis, independent learning and application thereof and online interface to teachers and students of 9th and 10th so as to train them in upgarding their skills.

The Swayam Sidham project the first of its kind  in the country, has been developed with a view to make the schools self-reliant, self-supportive, self-accountable and techno-friendly, he said. It will establish standards for teaching-learning, assessment, school leadership and management. This will help to monitor, on a continuous basis, the change in learning level of students and thus making the schools self-accountable.

Sh. P.C. Dhiman, Additional Chief Secretary (Education) informed that the portal aims to make the schools techno-friendly.  The website contains various links to lesson plans, question-banks, learning indicators prepared by teachers themselves during training programme. This content is available for class 9th and 10th. It also shows the subject books and board papers.

He hoped that every school Head holds monthly meeting with the teachers of his/ her school to discuss lesson plans of topics which are going to be taught in the coming month, focusing mainly on objectives, presentations, student’s tasks, question banks etc. In this meeting the Head is assisted by the School Teacher Trainer. The Lesson Plans prepared by the teachers are discussed and analysed and improvements, if any, will be made through such discussions.

Sh. D.C. Rana, Additional Secretary (Education), Sh. Ghanshyam, State Project Director, RMSA and Dr. Anima Sharma, State Coordinator, who all are the driving forces behind the Swaymsidham project, were present on the occasion.

These portals have been designed and developed by NIC Himachal Pradesh State Centre and the contributions of Sh. Daljeet Singh Rana, Scientist-C, Sh. Sanjay Sharma, Scientist-D and Sh. Sarvjeet Kumar, Scientific Officer are worth mentioning. Sh. Shailender Kaushal, Scientist-C arranged the launch ceremony. It is hoped that the Project will result in improving the quality of education in the Government Schools of the State.