Bringing back kids to schools

Expressbuzz, July 3, 2009

BHUBANESWAR: Presence of a sizeable out-of-school children population has prompted the Orissa Government to go soft on norms of new primary schools coming up under the Centrallysponsored Sarva Siksha Abhijan (SSA) so that access to education improves, mostly in the hilly and tribal pockets.

As per relaxed norms, in KBK districts as well as tribal sub-plan areas of the State, new primary schools will be opened in habitations which have at least 25 children in the age-group of 6 to 11 years. Establishment of the new schools will be subject to the fact that there is no primary school within a km of of such habitations.

Earlier, the SSA rules provided that new primary schools or such alternative schooling facility could be provided within 1 km of each habitation basing on which a large number of centres under Eduation Guarantee Scheme (EGS) were opened.

Later, EGS centres were closed and new primary schools were opened in habitations, where at least 40 children in the 6-11 age-group were found and had no primary school within 1 km distance.

As per a resolution brought out by the School and Mass Education Department, the need for relaxing the norms was felt after Orissa Primary Education Authority (OPEPA) brought to the State Government’s notice that there are at least 2.70 lakh children in the 6-14 age-group who are out of school. Two years back, the number of out of school children in the 6-14 age-group stood at 3.51 lakh which has recorded a decline.

Most of the out-of-school children are in Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nuapada, Balangir, Kalahandi and Keonjhar districts, the trend clearly showing their high prevalence in tribal and hilly difficult terrains. This led to the relaxation of norms so that access to elementary education and universalisation could improve.

In late 1980s, when Education and Youth Affairs were under the same administrative control, the Orissa Government had stipulated that primary schools would be established in all habitations having a population of more than 200 in hilly and tribal areas. For other areas, the population norm was 300.