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The election commission wants electoral education to be included in school syllabus
The Election Commission of India wants to introduce electoral studies in school syllabus to boost voter turnouts. For finalising the syllabus a national committee is formed which will be fed recommendations by state level committees.
They say many an elections in India are lost not due to the wrong person garnering votes but due to a large percentage of people choosing to stay at home and take a holiday rather than exercising their franchise to vote. In order to boost voter turnout during elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) feels that the awareness and the feeling of responsibility needs to be inculcated right from childhood and that’s why the ECI has chalked out plans to teach electoral practices to school and college students.
Before implementing this initiative, it is mooted to develop a syllabus which will be included in civics and social studies subjects both at the SSC and Intermediate level in Telangana. While a national-level committee will head the initiative, separate state-level committees will be formed to provide inputs on what the syllabus should include.
A committee has been formed for the purpose and it has been give a time frame of 3 months to submit its report. The chief electoral officer will chair the committee and other key members will include principal secretary to government, director of school education; secretary, board of intermediate education; director, State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and academics and experts selected by SCERT.
The ECI has given specific directions on what the state-level committee should do. Apart from reviewing the existing curriculum in civics/social studies the committee will suggest methodology through which the state will disseminate the electoral literature in educational institutions and the informal education sector. Suggestions will also have to be sent to the national-level committee. The introduction of 'electoral literary curriculum' is part of the ECI's programme called Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP).
The additional chief electoral officer will be the member-convenor for the SVEEP. While traditionally voter awareness programs are held by political parties across the spectrum and NGOs, the ECI feels that electoral literacy should be included in school syllabus as well.