Centre, state govts to identify out of school children

The Centre and state governments have resolved to identify the number of children out of school in the country, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said today.
He was speaking at the 65th Cabinet Advisory Board of Education (CABE) meeting here today.
"The Centre and state governments have resolved to launch 'Operation Digital Board' and also initiate a scheme to identify out of school children from September, 2018," he told reporters.
During the meeting, district-wise findings of the National Achievement Survey (NAS) for classes III, V and VIII were tabled. A number of CABE sub-committee of reports were also submitted.
A sub-committee on out of school children will submit its final report on January 31. However, the panel recommended the need to have a standardised definition of out of school children, and that states should conduct joint surveys to identify such children.

"We will take the identification process to the grassroot level so that the effort does not remain on paper. Since admissions in schools continue till July-August, a scheme will be launched in September for this," Javadekar assured.

The recommendations also included providing Aadhaar cards to all out of school children and introduce pre-primary education in government schools.
The sub-committee on girls' education is likely to submit its final report next month.
Among the draft recommendations, the committee suggested a residential, English medium, CBSE school for girls on lines of Navodaya Vidyalayas in each district; extension of mid-day meal support upto Class XII; free education upto PG level; residential degree colleges and polytechnics for women in district headquarters; and an exclusive women university in each state.

Twenty-two education ministers of various states of the country were present in the meeting.
Javadekar added that the frequency of CABE meetings would be increased with less agenda items for comprehensive discussions in the future.