A teachers’ organisation has pointed out the lacunae in the working, as committees for out-of-school children are yet to be formed. The committees had to organise surveys and enroll out-of-school children by November 30.
According to the Maharashtra State School Principals Association, the fanfare with which education minister Vinod Tawde announced the plan of action for enrolling out-of-school children by calling a meeting of education department and zilla parishad officials has been in vain. “The plan required officials to go to their local areas and form committees that would constitute more committees and carry out the work of surveying and enrolling the out-of-school children. This had to be done by November 20 as per the schedule announced by Mr Tawde,” said a member of the association.
In a bid to get all out-of-school children enrolled the state had conducted a survey on July 4 wherein around 55,000 out-of-school children had been identified and enrolled. However, due to various objections, and the flawed way in which the survey had been conducted, the teachers and stake-holders had protested forcing the government to announce that a new comprehensive survey would be conducted. Mr Tawde’s announcement in the first week of November was to that end.
“The committees and sub-committees had to complete the work of identifying and enrolling out-of-school students by November 29 but there has been no meeting of the committees till date. It shows the lethargy and lack of interest among the department and ministry officials. The entire exercise seems to be a farce,” said the association spokesperson.
However, Mahavir Mane, education director, clarified that a meeting in this regard had been scheduled for November 24 and the work of enrolling out-of-school children was on. “The meeting will be held on November 24 and the next few days and a plan will be prepared for the survey after which the reports will be expected to be submitted by December,” said Mr Mane in the letter addressed to teachers.
