Survey to identify children not enrolled in school begins

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 23

EGS/STR/AIE volunteers will conduct a door-to-door survey in villages and at the block level to identify children from 6 to 14 years of age who have never been enrolled in schools and those who have dropped out due to some reasons.

The Education Department, in its orders, had directed that volunteers of the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS), Special Trainer (STR) and Alternative Innovative Education (AIE) scheme would conduct this survey.

They have been asked to go to villages, railway stations, migrants employed in constructing buildings, slum areas, brick-kilns and houses on the outskirts.

The eight-day survey began today. The survey will find out the reasons behind students not attending school.

If required, help from school management committees can also be taken for the survey.

School principals will head this survey and will provide forms to the EGS/STR/AIE volunteers after getting it from the district special training coordinator.

The school principal, after getting the survey report from these volunteers, will update the record of the students who are not going to schools in the education register and rural education register by December 7.

Even the present status of the students identified under it would also be written in the register.

If the name of a student is not entered in the register, then the school principal would be held responsible for this.

Even 10 per cent sample checking of the students identified in the survey is to be done at the cluster level by the centre head teacher concerned by December 13.

After the sample checking, the school principals will take the record of the identified students to the office of the Block Primary Education Officer (BPEO) and with the help of data entry operator-cum-office assistant of the office concerned, the record will be uploaded online.

This work of online submission will have to be completed by December 18.

Even the BPEO office data entry operator-cum-office assistant will be given special training in the software, especially designed by the head office, for the online entry of the students identified in the survey.

The training will be given by the district MIS coordinator and district special training coordinator concerned.

Every block of each district BPEO office will be given separate login-id and password for this work.

One EGS/AIE/STR volunteer would be given responsibility to hold a survey of 100 families in the village while the DEO (Secondary) can appoint more EGS/AIE/STR volunteer as per the population.

This survey is being conducted as under the Right to Education Act, 2009. It is mandatory for the government to provide free education up to Class VIII to the children between six and 14 years of age.