‘Aao School Chalein’ campaign: Govt schools witness surge of above 14 pc in enrolment: Officials

Srinagar, Sept 18: The Jammu and Kashmir public schools are witnessing a surge of above 14 per cent (pc), courtesy, new enrolment drive ‘Aao School Chalein Campaign’, officials said on Sunday.
The officials said that the efforts of the J&K Government’s School Education Department (SED) are bearing results as a new enrolment drive ‘Aao School Chalein’ campaign is bringing children to schools and now the schools have witnessed 14.5% increase in the enrolment in 2021-22 as compared to 2020-21 under National Education Policy.
After the unique initiative of the SED, TALAASH Survey, 1,65,000 students have been enrolled in various schools of J&K UT, said the officials.
Through this initiative, 20 Lakh children have been surveyed and out of which, 93,508 students have been found out of schools or never enrolled. Mainstreaming of out-of-school children has been initiated in the appropriate age schools. Government is committed to provide education with a value system to all meritorious students.
The focus is laid on vulnerable segments for enrolment of students in pre-primary classes and primary classes which includes nomadic children, children of far-flung areas, girls as well as children of SC & ST communities.
More so, around 100 best teachers and lecturers of J&K are being sent outside UT for training this year, who shall act as master trainers, mentor teachers, and will work to improve the cognitive skill of the mapped children.
For capacity building of Teachers, a student mentorship programme, Student & Teacher Engagement for Educational Reinforcement (STEER) has been launched in the UT which focuses on student performance in academics and to strengthen the learning outcome. Also under a unique initiative, Matri Bhojan Yojana implemented in UT, where under mothers are visiting the schools to ensure quality of cooked meals.
The education department has also signed MoU with Akshaya Patra for Community Kitchen in Jammu & Samba districts which will be replicated in other districts too.
Around 70,000 students enrolled in 714 government schools are being imparted vocational education in 14 different trades. 803 vocational labs have been established, 1122 more labs and 1352 smart class rooms are being established during the current financial year. A revolutionary step has been taken to establish 127 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) and 1420 Computer Aided Learning (CAL) Centres. Around, 500 additional Atal Tinkering Labs will be established this year to translate commitment into action.
To provide technical skills class 12th pass outs in the UT, an MoU has been signed with HCL TechBee, for providing skill training inquisitiveness, scientific temper, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students as per the recommendation of National Education Policy.
The quality of education is being ensured in every school through various reforms and the dream of universal education is being realized through community participation. Government is not only ensuring students go to school but a good school having all kinds of facilities. To achieve this goal, quality education is being ensured across the schools in UT and it is one of the paramount goals for the government which is determined for effective implementation of other interventions.
The government also gives emphasis on building cognitive abilities of students, better learning transactions using toy based learning, experiential and competency based learning. Under “Each One Teach One” campaign, primary and upper primary students are teaching their neo-literate family members so that they could become literate, a module and material has already been developed and distributed by Samagra Shiksha among the beneficiaries.
The thrust of the J&K Government on the education sector with different policies and interventions have led to an increase of over 7 percent and 1 percent Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher secondary and secondary level respectively.
The encouraging figure was revealed by the Government of India’s latest Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+). Since 2018, J&K’s GER has increased to 7.7 percent in higher secondary level in 2021 and 1.7 percent in the secondary level in the past three years.
“In 2018-19 J&K’s GER in higher secondary level was 42.4 percent and in 2020-21 the figures reached 50.1 percent. Similarly for the secondary level, in 2020-21, J&K recorded 59.8 percent against 2018-19’s 58.1 percent”, a report reads. “In 2019-20, J&K’s GER in higher secondary level was recorded at 38.4 percent and in the same period, GER in secondary level stood at 58.7 percent”, it adds.
Earlier, J&K ranked 17th in the National Achievement Survey and J&K ranks 6th in the survey. The Education Department is working on an action Plan which will ensure that student enrollment in schools increases in the next two years and no student drops out of school.
Lieutenant Governor recently said the student enrolment in government-run schools has increased by more than 14 percent in the past two years.
Sinha said, “If you will see three years before 2019, the enrolment in schools was reducing. However, in the past two years, enrolment has increased by 14.2 percent in government schools”. “As you all know that after a long time the Government of India under PM Narendra Modi’s efforts, New Education Policy has been implemented and under that scheme, early childhood care and education has been started to prepare the students for better and quality education,” he added
The LG further said, “Despite two years of COVID-19, Jammu and Kashmir School Education Department has done tremendous work and 1.24 Lakh boys and girls have been enrolled for early childhood care and education.”
“2000 Kindergartens have also been established and 12,000 teachers have been trained and more than five Lakh students have been given new learning materials,” he said. Sinha further added, “1588 computer labs and 1420 vocational training labs have also been established in Jammu and Kashmir and in the past two years, 28 residential girl hostels have also been established.”