Mysore/Mysuru: In a bid to cover all rural students and school dropouts under the New Education Policy (NEP) and to bring them to the mainstream society, the Department of Primary and Secondary Education, in association with Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department (RDPR), has come forward to constitute a Gram Panchayat Education Task Force, comprising officials from all stake-holder departments.

Department of Primary and Secondary Education Principal Secretary S.R. Umashankar and RDPR Department Principal Secretary L.K. Ateeq have issued a joint order on the formation of Gram Panchayat Education Task Force, while setting out a 15- point charter on the tasks to be carried out.

The Task Force, to be headed by the respective Panchayat Development Officer (PDO), will ensure that all children in villages aged between 6 and 14 years have enrolled in schools. This Task Force has been entrusted with enforcing the provisions of Compulsory Education Act of 2012, as per which the authorities have to maintain a Register of Education in villages. Accordingly, the Task Force members, who include ASHA and Anganawadi workers, CRPs (Cluster Resource Person), SDMC members, village leaders, School Headmasters etc., have to identify all school dropouts in villages and make them rejoin schools.

In order to make this rural education initiative a total success, the Government has asked the Education Department authorities to ensure cent percent enrolment and attendance of children in rural schools. In another step towards ensuring the success of the initiative, the Government has tasked two other Departments — Health Department and Women and Child Welfare Department, other than Primary and Secondary Education and RDPR Departments, for making this ambitious rural education initiative a huge success.

Meanwhile, DDPI Dr. Panduranga told Star of Mysore that although the Education Department was tasked with carrying out a survey of school dropouts earlier, the initiative did not see much success due to various reasons. Now the Government has sought to ensure success by engaging other Departments such as RDPR for carrying out the task. 

The Government has  also constituted a Task Force for the purpose of conducting a survey of school dropouts and to ensure that all school dropouts in rural areas are enrolled in schools and attend classes, he pointed out.