Govt. to conduct fresh survey of drop-out rate at pre-primary level

Govt. to conduct fresh survey of drop-out rate at pre-primary level
Yash Khajuria	9/24/2011 8:47:10 PM
JAMMU, Sept 24: Concerned about the functioning of the Anganwari centers and to make fresh survey of the drop out rate at pre-primary level in the state, governments has directed the Education department and social welfare department to conduct a joint detailed survey within a month. Sources said that the survey has been initiated after Central governments asked the state to ensure better coordination between both the departments to implement different schemes in proper way and come up with the detailed analysis of the impact of the different central schemes at the district level. The survey will be conducted between age group of 3 to 5. According to the sources failure at official level to coordinate properly has created confusion in implementation of different plans in the state. Official sources said that government wants to ensure proper coordination between Sarv Shiksha Abiyan (SSA) and Anganwari centres so that its benefit reaches the targeted population. “We are conducting a detailed survey and within month we will submit the report to government and after that there will be review different projects”, said a official. He said that it will allow better resource utilization so that targeted population group gets the maximum benefit. On the other side while the drop out rate from schools have come down from 7.8 per cent to 5.7 per cent in past few years the Education department will take part in survey to update its existing data at district level and provide consultancy services to the Social Welfare department. “The joint survey will allow us to provide them helping hand particularly at K.G level so that children are retained in the schools and Anganwari centres”, said a official. There are nearly 18,000 Anganwari centres in Jammu and Kashmir and in January this year centre approved nearly 3,094 new centres for the state but despite such large number of centres they have not helped in providing necessary help to the children below 5 years and most of them do not shift to regular schools. According to a source the problem with the Anganwari centres is that children who go to these centres then did not shift to regular schools which are one of the reasons for failure at government level to address the drop out rate. “There is lack of coordination and till both the departments will not help each other pre-primary education level cannot change”, said a source.