July 22, 2014 | India Didactics Association

Bringing Out-Of-School Children into the Ambit of School Education

According to the household survey conducted by States/UTs and reported in their Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) submitted to this Ministry, the number of Out-of-School Children has considerably declined to 17.24 lakh in 2014.

The Government of India had earlier commissioned two independent surveys to estimate the number of out-of-school children in the country in 2005 and 2009 which shows a decline in the number of out of school children from 134.6 lakh in 2005 to 81.5 lakh in 2009.

NCERT undertook a project on “Development of Guidelines for Special Training of Out-of-School Children under RTE Act” during 2011-12. The prime purpose of these Guidelines is to facilitate the state level functionaries working in this area by providing suggestive strategies and understanding on pedagogical processes required for mainstreaming out-of-school children.

Towards Qualitative and Affordable Education in the Country

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has taken a number of initiatives including various Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) to enhance access of quality education at affordable rates:

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA): To meet the objectives of the RTE Act, 47488 schools, 753733 additional classrooms, 583748 toilets, 40161 drinking water facilities & 7.02 lakh teachers have been sanctioned under the scheme since 2009-10. The progress under the RTE, Act, 2009 indicates that 19.88 crore children have been enrolled in elementary school, with a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 96.5% as per unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2013-14. The annual average dropout rate has come down from 6.8% (2009-10) to 4.7% (2013-14) at primary level.