J&K lacks fresh data about out of school children as no survey conducted in last 3 years

Srinagar: The School Education Department has not conducted any fresh survey of Out of School Children (OSC) in Jammu and Kashmir for the last three years even as the rate of mainstreaming such children is “very low”, the union Ministry of Human Resource Development has said.
It came to fore at the Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting for 2019-20 for Jammu and Kashmir by the MHRD last year.
As per the minutes of the PAB meeting, the MHRD said during the appraisal of issues confronting the education sector in J&K, rate of mainstreaming the out of school children in regular schools was “very low”.
“State has not conducted, updated survey of Out of School Children since 2016-17,” it said.
The MHRD has told officials in the J&K School Education Department that there was an “urgent need to have a renewed focus on universal enrolment, attendance and completion of elementary education”.
The department has also failed to start construction on 107 new secondary even as the J&K government was asked to take up the construction work on priority, the MHRD said.
It added that work had not been started for 189 Additional Classrooms (ACRS), 172 Science laboratories, 195 Libraries and 197 Art and Craft Rooms.
The ministry has asked the J&K government to take up these pending works on priority and ensure their time-bound completion.
As per the MHRD, there are more than two thousand untrained teachers in Government Secondary schools, who do not meet the requisite professional qualifications.
“State may prepare an action plan to conduct the requisite training,” read the PAB minutes.
The ministry has also said that there were 3,952 vacant teachers’ posts in Government Secondary schools, which may be filled on priority.

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