06-07-2004, 08:49 PM
<b>Vocational course for child labourers in the offing </b>
Barkha Goel/ New Delhi
With the fight against child labour turning into an impossible task, the Government is planning to lure the underprivileged children to schools with curriculum promising to make them better workers and not just educated unemployed. With the objective in mind, the HRD Ministry is charting out a vocational course curriculum for the child labour in secondary schools.
A study has revealed that 5.5 crore of the nine crore children in the age group of 14-18 years don't go to schools and instead work as cheap labour in bidi industry, fireworks or bottling factories.
"For the last one year, we have been working on a vocational course at the secondary level which will train children in domestic skills, agriculture, making handicrafts and as security providers," said Higher Education Secretary S C Tripathi. But it seems unlikely that the course can be introduced in this academic session.
There are more dropouts at the secondary level than in primary school. "States like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal continue to lag behind in secondary education. Southern states, apart from Gujarat and Maharashtra, are doing well," said Mr Tripathi. With the new Government planning on greater investment in education to about six per cent of the GDP, the Ministry of Human Resource Development is also proposing expansion of secondary and higher education institutes. "Our target is to double the number of children in secondary schools from the present 3.5 crore. It would require expansion of infrastructure and more schools than the present 500 Navodyalayas and 900 Kendriya Vidyalayas," he said.
Although nothing has been finalised, the ministry is considering a characteristic change in seconary school policies. For example, there is only one Navodyalaya in every district with a provision for 75 per cent children from rural areas. More such schools could be introduced in every district.
<b>The changes in the pipeline for Kendriya Vidyalaylas include that instead of mainly catering to children of Government servants, they benefit public at large. The KV schools could employ additional staff and start a second shift to educate more children. The recommendations include introducing a ranking system to assess the performance of states in higher education</b>. It will help determine the number of children out of school, drop outs and failures in board examinations.
Barkha Goel/ New Delhi
With the fight against child labour turning into an impossible task, the Government is planning to lure the underprivileged children to schools with curriculum promising to make them better workers and not just educated unemployed. With the objective in mind, the HRD Ministry is charting out a vocational course curriculum for the child labour in secondary schools.
A study has revealed that 5.5 crore of the nine crore children in the age group of 14-18 years don't go to schools and instead work as cheap labour in bidi industry, fireworks or bottling factories.
"For the last one year, we have been working on a vocational course at the secondary level which will train children in domestic skills, agriculture, making handicrafts and as security providers," said Higher Education Secretary S C Tripathi. But it seems unlikely that the course can be introduced in this academic session.
There are more dropouts at the secondary level than in primary school. "States like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal continue to lag behind in secondary education. Southern states, apart from Gujarat and Maharashtra, are doing well," said Mr Tripathi. With the new Government planning on greater investment in education to about six per cent of the GDP, the Ministry of Human Resource Development is also proposing expansion of secondary and higher education institutes. "Our target is to double the number of children in secondary schools from the present 3.5 crore. It would require expansion of infrastructure and more schools than the present 500 Navodyalayas and 900 Kendriya Vidyalayas," he said.
Although nothing has been finalised, the ministry is considering a characteristic change in seconary school policies. For example, there is only one Navodyalaya in every district with a provision for 75 per cent children from rural areas. More such schools could be introduced in every district.
<b>The changes in the pipeline for Kendriya Vidyalaylas include that instead of mainly catering to children of Government servants, they benefit public at large. The KV schools could employ additional staff and start a second shift to educate more children. The recommendations include introducing a ranking system to assess the performance of states in higher education</b>. It will help determine the number of children out of school, drop outs and failures in board examinations.