Govt to conduct survey to identify out-of-school kids

New Delhi: In a major decision to reduce drop-outs of schoolchildren, the government has decided to conduct a comprehensive survey to identify out-of-school children across the country. Notably, CABE is the highest advisory body to advise the Central and state governments in the field of education.

The decision in this regard was taken during a recently held meeting of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) sub-committee under the chairmanship of Minister of State for Human Resource Development Upendra Kushwaha.

During the meeting, which was also attended by education ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Tripura, it was decided to create a database of all children having Aadhaar unique identification number that would help in the identification of out of school children.

The survey would be conducted in convergence with the ministries of HRD, Women and Child Development and Labour & Employment. The departments of the concerned ministries such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) & SABLA and National Child Labour Project would help states in conducting surveys.

According to a CABE sub-committee member, who was present at the meeting, states have also been directed to ensure Aadhaar number to every child.

"The sub-committee also fixed the responsibilities of officials for ensuring UID numbers. Education department would be responsible for in school children while district collectors would be held accountable for ensuring Aadhaar UID to all out of school children," the member said.

"The rationale behind the creation of a database of all children, including out of school kids using their UID would help in facilitating the local authorities to maintain a record of children as mandated under Section 8. It would also facilitate admission of out of school children in school as mandated under Section 9 of RTE Act," the member said.

"The sub-panel has also approved a recommendation to have a standardised definition of out of school children. The sub-panel also approved the suggestion to change the status of 'out of school child' to 'in school child' in the database once a child is motivated to join a school," the member said.