Union Minister for Human Resources Development Prakash Javadekar has said that the Centre and State Governments have resolved to identify the number of children out of school in the country. He was speaking at the 65th Central Advisory Board of Education meeting in New Delhi .
Mr Javadekar said the Centre and State Governments have resolved to launch ‘Operation Digital Board’ and also initiate a scheme to identify out of school children from September this year. A sub-committee on out of school children will submit its final report on January 31. However, the panel recommended the need to have a standardised definition of out of school children and that states should conduct joint surveys to identify such children.
During the meeting, district-wise findings of the National Achievement Survey (NAS) for classes III, V and VIII were tabled. A number of CABE sub-committee of reports were also submitted. The recommendations also included providing Aadhaar cards to all out of school children and introduce pre-primary education in government schools.
Among the draft recommendations, the committee suggested a residential, English medium, CBSE school for girls on lines of Navodaya Vidyalayas in each district; extension of mid-day meal support up to Class XII; free education up to PG level; residential degree colleges and polytechnics for women in district headquarters and an exclusive women university in each state.