Knowledge
Introducing child tracking system soon to track school drop-out rates
HRD Minister Smriti Irani announced a soon to be launched child tracking system to capture data about 200 million children and arrest the drop-out rates. Besides this, the minister made several announcements through tweets.
That drop-out rates in schools have reached alarming levels is a known fact by now but it is heartening to know that the Human Resource Ministry (HRD) ministry is planning to introduce a child tracking system for over 200 million children across the nation. And it is said that what is tracked can be improved so this may be very well the first step towards stemming the school drop-out rates.
Recent tweets by the HRD minister, Smriti Irani announced that apart from introducing the child tracking system, the ministry will improve the concept of bridge school that was earlier discontinued due to Right to Education (RTE).
Other announcements:
1 The progress of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), introduced for ensuring universal elementary education will be tracked online.
2 These reviews will now be done on a daily basis instead of the usual mid-term online review.
3 Further, an expenditure portal is being planned for centralising the school education data and similarly a portal for Teacher Education Institutes will be developed to make grading in examination a transparent process
4 Lastly, the National Assessment Survey (NAS) that was previously done once in 3 years will now be an annual exercise.
At the same time, HRD minister Smriti Irani said that her ministry is also assisting states who are lacking behind in education by helping them in developing composite schools by rationalizing stand-alone schools that consists of only one teacher.
"Smaller schools are either mentored by larger schools in same geographical area or are merged in the interest of students," she tweeted.
The minister also informed about a "Learning outcome portal being designed by NCERT which will have videos so that outcomes are easily comprehended n tests voluntarily taken."
While concluding, she added, "Under Shaala Siddhi school evaluation was undertaken since November 2015. This year we shall extend it to all schools across the country."