To make this year’s Rajyothsava celebrations more meaningful, the Education Department is launching an ambitious movement to mainstream all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years and admit them to formal schools.
Announcing the programme, Primary and Secondary Education Minister B.K. Chandrashekar told repoterscus on mainstreaming the 5.5 lakh out-of-school children. About one lakh children have already been admitted into formal schools as part of the Chinnara Angala programme.
Teachers will visit the homes of out-of-school children between 9 am and 10 am on November 4, 11, 18 and 25 and impress upon the parents, to admit children to school. Teachers can appeal to parents and children about the importance of schooling through songs or interesting anecdotes, he said.
Chandrashekar said teachers should ensure that children enrolled in school subsequently do not drop out. If, for instance, a child attends school for a week and then drops out, it is the duty of teachers to bring him back to school, he said. School heads and block education officers should also ensure that such children are provided with mid-day meals, uniform and teachers.
Based on the child’s learning, bridge courses or remedial learning can be introduced. This movement will be held for a month. Based on the response, we will take a decision ; whether it should be continued, Chandrashekar said.
Before the movement begins, heads of schools compile statistics about the number of out-of-school children and school dropouts. Each teacher is then assigned the task of enrolling a certain number of children to school. Commissioner of Public Instruction V.P. Baligar said.
Flexi-schools: Baligar said the department was toying with the idea of introducing flexi-schools exclusively for child labourers. Presently, the state has 40,000 child labourers of whom, 7,000 work in hazardous units, according to statistics provided by the labour department.
ABB chief’s visit: K.N. Shenoy chairman of ABB visitited a Chinnara Angala centre in D.J. Halli on Thrusday.