Nand Kumar, Principal Secretary, School Education, said nearly 40,000 out-of-school children from migrant families were traced during the recent survey conducted by the government.
Dipti Singh
To track out-of-school children from migrant families or those without permanent addresses, and increase the enrollment of such children in schools, the state government has decided to provide education guarantee cards (EGCs) fitted with a chip to all students.
These EGCs will enable the education department track those children who migrate and then help them get enrolled in schools near their new address. “This will help these children continue their education from where they left off in the previous school,” said a senior official from the school education department. The card with the tracking chip intends to reduce the number of out-of-school children and also ensure compliance with the Right To Education (RTE) Act that makes it mandatory for the government to impart education to children in the age group of 6-14 years.
Nand Kumar, Principal Secretary, School Education, said nearly 40,000 out-of-school children from migrant families were traced during the recent survey conducted by the government. According to Kumar, these students will be brought under the EGC scheme, which will make Maharashtra the state with maximum enrollment of schoolgoing children. “The cards will have information of the name of the school, district, name of principal, contact number of school, class in which the student studied in that particular, course progress etc. What the students have learned will be updated from time to time. Information about their parents and their contact numbers, if available, will also be there,” said Kumar.
He added while the cards would be given to the children, it would be the teachers’ responsibility to update information from time to time. “Class teachers will be asked to keep in constant touch with these students. When they migrate, the students will be asked to furnish the EGC at a school in their new locality. This will enable the new school to admit the child in the relevant class and teach the curriculum from where he/she left off,” said Kumar.
He added that through this scheme the government was trying to not only bring back maximum number of out-of-school children to school but also keep a track of them if they stop attending a particular school. “We will be using this technology to track the student as long as they take admission in government schools,” said Kumar.
The state government is taking the help of educational NGOs to effectively implement the scheme.