PUNJAB TO TRACK OUT-OF-SCHOOL KIDS
Jalandhar March 22:
The Punjab education department has started working on a novel child tracking system to keep a tab on school dropouts to ensure universal elementary education.
Earlier, a door-to-door survey has revealed that out of the total 42,70,985 children in the age group of 6 to 14 years in the state, 1,00,457 do not attend school. The survey has revealed that five districts in Malwa region have maximum number of out-of-school children (OoSC) in the state in this age group.
The average ratio of the state is 23.52 per 1,000 children. It has revealed that Mansa is having maximum number of OoSC children with a ratio of 39.32 OoSC per 1,000. Faridkot, which has been nurtured by high profile political leaders of the state, follows closely with a ratio of 38.51.
According to education department officials, though the new programme has been chalked out under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan, the state has made it more specific to ensure education of OoSCs. Confirming the developments, director general, school education, Krishan Kumar, said the collection of data regarding OoSCs has been completed.
"A software has also already been designed for it and the data is being fed into this system at the state level for continuous monitoring at the district level as well as at the state level," he informed. "Three abridged courses have been planned to handle OoSC in the age groups of 8 to 10, 10 to 12 and 12 to 14, which would be of 6, 9 and 12 months duration to bring these children into the integrated system," he said. NGOs would also be involved to ensure enrolment and alternative education centres would also be opened.
"Whenever a child would shift from one place to other, information about the latter would be passed on to the new district within the state or even out of the state in case the child is from a migrant family to ensure that their education would not be discontinued," Kumar said.
"Once the data would be available at the state level with complete particulars of children, it would ensure proper monitoring that would add to accountability at the lower level also," he revealed.
Source : Punjab Mail Online
Jalandhar March 22:
The Punjab education department has started working on a novel child tracking system to keep a tab on school dropouts to ensure universal elementary education.
Earlier, a door-to-door survey has revealed that out of the total 42,70,985 children in the age group of 6 to 14 years in the state, 1,00,457 do not attend school. The survey has revealed that five districts in Malwa region have maximum number of out-of-school children (OoSC) in the state in this age group.
The average ratio of the state is 23.52 per 1,000 children. It has revealed that Mansa is having maximum number of OoSC children with a ratio of 39.32 OoSC per 1,000. Faridkot, which has been nurtured by high profile political leaders of the state, follows closely with a ratio of 38.51.
According to education department officials, though the new programme has been chalked out under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan, the state has made it more specific to ensure education of OoSCs. Confirming the developments, director general, school education, Krishan Kumar, said the collection of data regarding OoSCs has been completed.
"A software has also already been designed for it and the data is being fed into this system at the state level for continuous monitoring at the district level as well as at the state level," he informed. "Three abridged courses have been planned to handle OoSC in the age groups of 8 to 10, 10 to 12 and 12 to 14, which would be of 6, 9 and 12 months duration to bring these children into the integrated system," he said. NGOs would also be involved to ensure enrolment and alternative education centres would also be opened.
"Whenever a child would shift from one place to other, information about the latter would be passed on to the new district within the state or even out of the state in case the child is from a migrant family to ensure that their education would not be discontinued," Kumar said.
"Once the data would be available at the state level with complete particulars of children, it would ensure proper monitoring that would add to accountability at the lower level also," he revealed.
Source : Punjab Mail Online
