Govt panel to study problem of 'out-of-school' kids

NAGPUR: With almost 64,000 kids still out-of-school in Maharashtra, the education department is worried especially now that Right To Education Act (RTE) is in force. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) officials say though Maharashtra's figures are better than the national average there is still ground to cover. The state government has now constituted a special committee to look into the problem and offer solutions which may aid in future policy making.The seven member committee is expected file a report by October end.
Mahesh Karajgaonkar, state project coordinator of SSA, said, "The government is actively working towards reducing the figure and we are confident very soon we would produce good results. As of today there are 63,748 students out of school in the state and now with the special committee being formed, we can look forward to specific inputs that can help solve the problem."
The highly regarded annual survey on education by NGO Pratham confirms Maharashtra is much better placed as compared to other states. Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) shows that 1.64% kids in Maharashtra (age group 7-14) are out of school, compared to the national average of 3.3%. Nagpur district has the distinction of having least number of kids out of school at just 0.64%. As per ASER, Nagpur ranks seventh out of 550 districts surveyed across the country. Even literacy rates in Nagpur are the highest among cities in the state which goes to show the strong education foundation in the region. Data culled by UNICEF from the last census puts Nagpur's literacy rate at 92.38% - higher than that of Mumbai (90.81%), Pune (88.15%) and Aurangabad (91.36%).
Despite the stupendous performance of this region, the state committee headed by primary education director Mahavir Mane does not include even a single member from Vidarbha. Even Karajgaonkar, the man who was the head of Nagpur division till May this year, does not find a seat in the committee. Karajgaonkar however brushed it aside as a non-issue saying, "The entire thing anyway is connected to SSA."
Apart from Mane, the other six members are Srinivas Shastri (IAS official, education department Mumbai ), Farida Lambe (NGO Pratham - Mumbai), Heramb Kulkarni (educationist, Ahmednagar), Deepak Nagargoje (educationist, Beed), Sudeshna Parmar (NGO Sparrows, Pune) and Siddesh Wadekar (Mah Rajya Prathmik Shikshan, Mumbai).
The formation of the committee follows a meeting of education officials in Pune held on August 5 where various issues related to kids and academics were discussed. The committee has been tasked to look into the issue and submit a report within one month to the government.