A flawed survey by the government school teachers for identifying school drop-outs and “never enrolled children” for Alternative Inclusive Education (AIE) centres has resulted in a large number of children remaining deprived of these facilities.

Because of this, the state government could not send the exact number of school drop-outs to the central government and consequently received less grant.

According to reliable sources, “In Ludhiana district, there are more than 1,6500 children of the age group 6 to 14, who are either school drop-outs or have never been enrolled in a school. But as per the survey conducted by the government school teachers, the number of such children is only 4,000. After the survey, the state government was to prepare a proposal for seeking grant from the central government for opening AIE centres in the state. It was the efficiency of Krishan Kumar, Director General, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, Punjab, who expressed his doubts over number of school drop-outs mentioned in the survey. Following this, the DGSA increased the number of children shown in the survey by 2000-3000 keeping the population of the district in mind.”

No wonder the number of children enrolled in AIE centres are more as compared to the grant released by the central government. Under this project, Rs 25 are spent on each child in one month. This year, the central government sent a grant of Rs 1.3 crore for running these centres. Till last year, the children enrolled under this project used to get many facilities.

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