Go ahead to include Kanyashree project in school curriculum

Kolkata: The state government has given a go-ahead in the process of including the "Kanyashree" project of Mamata Banerjee government in the school curriculum from primary to Class XII. "In the primary level, it will be incorporated in the subject related to health and physical exercise while in the higher secondary level; it will be a part of the school project. The change will come into effect right from the next academic session," a senior official of the education department said. After Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee won the UN award at the World Forum in The Hague in June for Kanyashree, Education minister Partha Chatterjee had said that the project and the award winning event will find place in the textbooks of the schools across the state. He had given the responsibility to prepare a draft on how to go about with this to the syllabus committee headed by Aveek Majumder. The draft that was submitted to the Education department some days back got its approval on Monday.

The Kanyashree project is already a part of the school curriculum from Class V to Class VIII. The award winning part will be included in it. Banerjee's Kanyashree had bagged the first prize for Public Service for out of a total of 552 projects from 62 countries that were nominated for the award. Kanyashree is a targeted conditional cash-transfer scheme aimed at retaining girls in schools and other educational institutions. It also aims towards skill development and preventing child marriage. Over four million adolescent girls have already enrolled in the scheme and it is being implemented through 16,000 institutes and schools.