Srinagar, June 4: The Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL), Ministry of Education (MoE) while expressing its concern over the dropout rate in schools has asked the School Education Department (SED) to work in coordination with the J&K Labour Department and capture the data of students pursuing ITIs and polytechnic courses.
As per the official document, the MoE has expressed its concern over the dropout rate of school children noting that a dropout trend was visible in class 8th.
“The UT should look upon the data school wise in terms of data variation and work in coordination with the labour department to capture the student data pursuing ITIs and polytechnic and capture them into the database,” the document reads.
The Union Ministry has further instructed the J&K SED to saturate the boys’ and girls’ toilets, drinking water facility, electricity and libraries in all the government schools especially in the Aspirational districts.
“If the playground facilities are not there in the schools then the J&K UT should get tagged these schools with the neighbouring schools which have playground facilities and report the data on UDISE so that the DSEL will attach these schools to the nearby existing playgrounds,” the document reads.
The education department has been asked to chase the ICT and digital initiatives besides taking urgent steps to make it fully functional in schools.
Moreover, the J&K SED has stated that the UT has more than 36000 Nomadic Children belonging to disadvantaged groups, who are being provided Quality Education, as there is a good chunk of Population of Tribals in the UT.
The department has stated that seasonal volunteers are engaged for six months only and are provided Rs 10000 per month, as there are no special tribal schools.
“The initiative is taken for the sustainability of their education, during their migration to Dhokes (Upper reaches of Mountains),” the document reads.
The DSEL has agreed to the demand of SED to enhance the monetary benefits from Rs 0.03 lacs to Rs 0.06 lacs, released to tribal students by the government.
“As per norms, only Rs. 0.03 lacs is sanctioned per student, which is insufficient to mange (TLE,Tents, First Aid Box etc) and honorarium to be paid seasonal volunteers, hence as per past practice, it may kindly be revised as Rs. 0.06 lacs per Student, so that they may have access to education,” the document reads.