The state government has decided to create special training centres for out-of-school children as part of implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
The Department of Basic Education has already created the detailed proposal for these centres, which has been duly approved by the Centre. These centres will be providing special training to about 95,000 children, aged between 6 to 14 years, who are not enrolled in schools. Retired teachers will be hired on a contract basis for six months as trainers in these centres.
Between July and August, the state initiated an extensive campaign to identify the out-of-school children across all districts. The Basic Shiksha Adhikaris (BSAs) of all districts were assigned the task of undertaking door-to-door surveys to identify and enlist such children.
The final tally saw 94,416 children who have either never gone to school or had to drop out. Hardoi was found to have one of the most dismal records, with 8,118 out-of-school children. Even the state capital, Lucknow, has its share, with a tally of 5,344. The Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad will now be undertaking the task of construction of such centres, the number of which has been decided according to the number of children who will be trained there.
Each centre will have 100 to 150 children on its rolls. So while Hardoi will have 810 centres approved for its 8,118 children, Lucknow will have 366 centres for 5,344 children.
The eastern UP district of Sonbhadra will have 590 centres for 5,926 children and Allahabad will have 285 centres for 4,259 children. The western UP districts of Bareilly and Bijore will have 401 centres for 3,971 children and 366 centres for 3,558 children respectively. Sitapur will have 330 centres for 3,573 children. The Centre will be providing 65 per cent of the funds for project, while 35 per cent will be given by the state government. Special Secretary (basic education) DK Singh said: “This is one of the first projects being implemented under the RTE. The state project office has already given out instructions to districts and master trainers have been trained. The hiring of the teachers will also begin soon.”
The State Training Institute has trained the master trainers for the programme, who will further train the contract teachers. The classes will be held in government primary schools after the regular school hours. The government will be hiring retired primary teachers for an honorarium of Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000.