Special training programme for school dropouts struggles to click

26% mainstreamed this year; fund crunch, migrant population blamed.

The special training programme (STP) under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) seems to have failed to achieve its desired results as only 26 per cent of 61,243 dropouts and out-of-school children were absorbed into the mainstream schools in the state this year.

Of the 61,243 children in the age group of 6 to 14 years, who were imparted alternate education under STP across the state in 2011-12 to mainstream them, only 16,448 joined regular schools at the end of the year.

Despite a budget of Rs 59.77 crore for this project, 65 per cent of which is granted by the Centre, the state Education Department could not cross the mark of 26 per cent.

STP, or the Alternative Innovative Education (AIE), has assumed more significance with the implementation of the Right to Education Act. It is considered as the base in order to ensure every child is enrolled in regular schools.

"One of the main reasons (behind the low enrollment) is migrant population, which makes it difficult to keep a track of out-of-school and dropouts. Though measures are being taken to ensure that maximum children are mainstreamed at the end of the programme, this is a continuing process," said SSA state project director Manoj Aggarwal.

Last year, of the 80,028 children covered under STP across the state, only 24,670 (approximately 30 per cent) were mainstreamed.

This suggests that not only the dismal percentage of mainstreaming these students is a setback to the education department but even the decline in its percentage is a cause of concern.

Aggarwal attributed this to shortfall in the budget sanctioned by the Centre and the demand raised by the department. "This year, the state was not sanctioned the amount that was sought. Against the estimate of Rs 6,500 crore for education in the state, with emphasis on the implementation of RTE, only Rs 3,369 crore was sanctioned," he said.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Modi addresses farmers, blames Centre for delay in Narmada gates

'Top cop Pandey, now on run, plotted Ishrat encounter with IB man'

NIA nabs 2 Ajmer Sharif blast suspects in Vadodara

Youth shot, Amreli tense as groups clash