The Government will take all possible steps to enroll out of school children in schools. The State Education Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani congratulated Butterflies, a non Government organisation for implementing the vision of the Uttarakhand Government, to mainstream around 1,200 out of school children are in schools.
More than 80 per cent of the children mainstreamed by Butterflies continue to go to school regularly. The Minister said that out of school children residing in mountainous parts should also be benefited under this scheme. He was speaking at a symposium on mobile education.
At the national level, the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) offers courses and programmes for out of school children. NIOS centres will be established in the State to educate such children. The Minister said, "We need to have a serious discussion about expanding the project to every block of Uttarakhand so that no child remains out of school. The Government would be providing all the necessary support needed to make primary education a priority."
Butterflies director Rita Panicker said that mobile education has helped number of children of migrant families and drop outs to continue their formal education. In this transition period of getting all children to school SSA and NIOS play a significant role in ensuring no child is left behind. Butterflies, as an organisation, aims to enroll out-of-school children in schools to provide them skills essential to a transformation of their lives and living conditions. "We also provide teachers the skills essential in bringing about this change in a child's life," she added.
She further said, "To discuss the challenges and opportunities for educating out of school children, we organised a symposium on Mobile Education and NIOS in partnership with Uttarakhand Government." NIOS academic director Dr Kuldeep Agarwal said, "Open schooling is an acceptable, cost effective, equivalent and alternative mode for educating out of school children." He further said that Rashtriya Madhyama Shiksha Abhiyan has an important component for the education of out of school children, and has recognised NIOS as the national resource organisation for this purpose.
Aloka Majumdar, head of corporate sustainability, HSBC India said "Education is a critical component of economic development and access to education offers the best opportunity for mainstreaming and growth. Given the magnitude of the challenges in this space we believe it requires a concerted effort between business, the development sector and the government to address the issue and accelerate reforms in education.”