The Chandigarh Health Education Centre (CHEC), a pioneering initiative for schoolchildren, is expected to be ready by the end of March, after missing two previous deadlines in December and February. The centre will be launched before the new academic session begins.
Located at Government Model High School in Sector 22, this centre is a first-of-its-kind project for government schools in India. It is being established in collaboration with the Chandigarh Rotary Club to provide health education to students from the city’s government schools.
The centre’s main focus areas will include general health, oral health, nutrition and physical activity, prevention of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, pregnancy and STI prevention, as well as social and emotional well-being.
UT Director of School Education, Harsuhinderpal Singh Brar, explained that the delay in opening the centre was due to the procurement of exhibits. He mentioned, “The exhibits have started arriving, and we are confident that the centre will be ready by the end of the month.”
The department aims to complete the project by the end of the academic year to submit a report to the central government.
The education department initially presented CHEC as an “innovative project” to the central government during a project approval board meeting for the Samagra Shiksha Scheme 2024, chaired by the Union Education Secretary. The central government approved an initial funding of ₹50 lakh with the understanding that an additional ₹1.2 crore would be considered in the following year, based on a recommendation from senior officers who inspect the completed project. The central government also noted that this project has the potential to be replicated nationwide, making it essential for the UT administration to ensure its timely completion.
The Project’s History
The CHEC project has been in the works since 2017, when Rotary International Chandigarh proposed its establishment. After receiving approval from the UT administrator, Dr. Atul Sachdev, the then head of the Department of General Medicine at GMCH, Sector 32, and Dr. JS Thakur from Rotary Club, visited Education Health Centres in the United States. They later submitted a report recommending the creation of a similar Health Education Centre in Chandigarh, based on the McMillan Center in the USA.
According to the proposal, the centre is designed to educate at least 1.5 lakh students from government schools every year. It will feature six state-of-the-art classrooms, each with a capacity of 75 students, and an auditorium with a capacity of 150. Every student will visit the centre at least once annually.
The Rotary Club is contributing exhibits, including advanced holographic models and technologies, estimated to cost around ₹1 crore.
