Knowledge
Android application launched to help administration find out-of-school children.
Identifykids – an android application that can help detect children who have never attended school or are dropouts has been launched in Nashik on a pilot basis. The app is jointly created by NGOs, the corporate sector and the government. The app can record not only children but also the reason
Today there are smartphone applications galore for every possible thing ranging from games to entertainment, productivity to monitoring. Many of them are products of international companies while there are others which try to ape the international ones. There are very few which work hard to provide a solution in the Indian context. One shining example in this category is Identifykids – an android application that will help detect children who have never attended school or are dropouts and integrate them back in the mainstream.
The app is jointly created by NGOs, the corporate sector and the government and has been currently launched in Nashik on pilot basis. Functionality is built into the app to not only identify children but also the reason for them not attending school. Citizens too are free to download the app and help out in the project.
Sachin Joshi from the NGO, Education on Wheels said that last year alone his organisation had integrated around 900 students into the mainstream. The NGOs efforts were driven the traditional way where they had listed a phone number requested citizens to call the helpline in case they notice a 6 to 8 year old child roaming. The rather successful campaign saw around 2,500 calls coming in. However, Sachin and his team did not want to rest just yet. They kept racking their brains on how they could bring more and more children in the fold of education.
Till 6 months ago when Tata Consultancy Services started Disk Innovation Centre in Nashik encouraging youth to work on different issues. 3 youth of NGO Team Kalam — Aparna Ghate, Kanak Jaitli and Shyam Kishore — began working on the challenges in education and solutions and they appointed Joshi as their mentor. "They came up with the app and as a pilot project identified 418 children. We brought more than 200 children into the mainstream," he said.
The administration too has involved itself in the project with the Nashik Municipal Corporation tasking teachers with identifying children using the app. The report thus prepared will be shared with the municipal commissioner, education minister and the chief minister by September 5.
Elaborating on the involvement of municipal school teachers, administrative officer of NMC's education department Nitin Upasani said that 128 tech-savvy teachers were chosen for the task. In case of teachers who do not have an android phone, alternative arrangements of manual forms have been made.
Once the teachers will identify the child, they will have various options to choose from for the reason of dropping out including babysitting siblings, lack of transport or no proximity to school. When the teacher submits this information in the application, NGOs will be able to see it and prepare their reports.
Pointing out to municipal school figures, Upasani shared that 3 years ago while government schools had 42,000 students, today this figure stands at 32,000, which means 10,000 students have dropped out.
Aparna, who developed the app along with 2 of her colleagues, said that the application was capable of providing real-time information as soon as the information was entered. Once the application is implemented state-wide, the information for the entire state along with reasons of drop-outs will be available at a click allowing the government to take appropriate action.
Sachin said currently in the pilot phase, the project would soon be implemented across the state.
* Read the original story by Sumita Sarkari on www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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