'Government to help school dropouts complete education'

The centre will introduce a new programme this year to enable financially weak school dropouts to return and complete their education right up to doctorate level, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said here Saturday.

The policy will be rolled out by December which will help those who had to give up education for work due to financial difficulties to complete their academics, up to the PhD level, she said, addressing students of Vivekanand Education Society, Chembur, Saturday afternoon.

"Women, tribal children and those from other backward or scheduled castes cannot afford higher education...Many drop out as they have to get employment. I also left education as I had no money," Irani said.

Under the proposed plan, those who were compelled to leave the education system at the VIIIth standard would be facilitated to return to education. The government would make the framework of equivalence for their degrees and vocation up to the doctorate level, she assured.

The minister informed that the government has recently launched 'Ishan Vikas' programme involving students between Class IX and XI, who have the potential to become researchers or scientists, to visit top-class technical institutions like the IITs and IIMs for orientation.

"Around 2200 students shall be taken to these top institutes in two batches every year for orientation," she said.

Lauding an initiative called 'Yuva For Seva' implemented in some institutions in Mumbai, Irani hinted that it might be incorporated in the proposed new education policy being finalised by her ministry.

"Our National Education Policy was last made in 1986. Now we are planning a new policy as the road-map for the future...We will roll-out a schedule to gather inputs from all. I am hoping 'Yuva For Seva' will be a part of it," Irani said.

'Yuva For Seva' of the VES Institute of Management Studies & Research, involves management students going to villages for three weeks as part of their curriculum, said its director Satish Modh.

Irani added that the government would develop government schools and promote use of technology in their routine affairs within a year.

This would enable parents of children attending government schools to know in real-time on their mobile phones when the child reached school, his/her days events at school, what assignments are given and whether these have been completed or not, etc.