The get information about the number of children out of schools in the State, between the ages of six to 14 years, the primary education department is undertaking a massive Bal Ginana (child count) programme. The count assumes significance as it will be based on the number of children the department assesses as its target group for enrollment in the primary schools of the State.
The Primary education director, Seema Jaunsari told The Pioneer that Bal Ginana started on April 01 and is expected to be completed soon. She said that the all the school heads have been asked to keep a close watch on the number of out of the school children and ensure that they are enrolled in the schools. Jaunsari said that more than 25000 children were enrolled in the primary schools of the state in the enrollment campaign ‘Jan Jan ka Prayas- Shiksha Ka Vikas’ undertaken on April 06.
She said that the success of the campaign indicates that lot more needs to be done to bring the students to schools. The primary education director informed that the department would plans to undertake some more such campaigns in the month of July to boost the number of enrollments. She said that Bal Ginana is important as it makes target group to be catered for enrollment.
The primary education department of the state is reeling under regular decrease in number of students in the Government schools. Education experts have time and again raised the propriety of spending huge sums of money on the salaries of teachers when the enrollment in these schools is taking a downward turn. Recent report of Annual Survey on Education Report (ASER) has also highlighted the fact that the private schools are fast catching up with the government ones in terms of student strength even in rural areas. It is worth mentioning here that the state government has decided to close some schools where the number of students is less than 10. It appears that by undertaking regular enrollment campaigns the department is planning to reverse the trend of decreasing enrolments in the primary schools of the State.
The AC and deluxe buses on important routes like Dehradun – Delhi the corporation has purchased 10 deluxe and 16 Volvo buses which would be inducted into the fleet soon.