By IANS,
Gandhinagar : A three-day statewide school enrolment drive, with special emphasis on the girl child, will commence in Gujarat Thursday.
Initiated by the Narendra Modi government and undertaken with zeal around the time schools open, the programme will see the chief minister, the entire state cabinet, parliamentary secretaries and all cadres of bureaucrats, criss-crossing the rural areas to ensure maximum enrolment in primary schools through popular involvement.
The programme, which aims at maximising admissions in primary schools, was started in 1998-99 and initially implemented in the three districts of Banaskantha, Panchmahal and Dangs.
Encouraged by its success, the government decided to implement it in all primary schools of the state. The year 2009-10 saw about 667,913 children in the age-group of 6 to 14 enrolled in schools. This year, the drive will also be held in urban areas June 24-26.
Official sources said that Modi would himself be in the border villages of Vav taluka of Banaskantha district in north Gujarat June 17, Jafarabad taluka of Amreli district in Saurashtra June 18 and Ghoghamba taluka of Dahod district June 19 to encourage people to participate in the movement.
“The state government sees primary education as a grassroots initiative and this movement has yielded astonishing results, increasing school enrolments and bringing down the drop-out ratio, two areas of major concerns in the field of education,” a government spokesperson said.
“Government schools have been provided with 64,390 new classrooms and 50,350 sanitation facilities. About 1.05 lakh ‘Vidhya Sahayaks’ (assistant teachers) have been hired,” the spokesperson added.
Facilities like drinking water and electricity has been provided in schools as part of the scheme. ‘Gunotsavs’ (training and orientation programmes to help students of classes 3 to 7 achieve basic reading, writing and numerical skills) were carried out in all 33,376 schools of the state. Results of ‘Gunotsav 2009’ were assessed by Unesco, which recognised the gradation method adopted by the state education department as a unique one.
The chief minister’s appeal for donating toys for the children of ‘anganwadi’ workers has also received an unprecedented response from people.
The drive will also see the “Kanya Kelavani Yatra” (processions) in villages. The “Kanya Kelavani” is a special fund in which every gift received by the chief minister is deposited in the government treasury for the cause of girl child education.