The Hindu : New Delhi News : Mobile schools proposed to spread education

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 14, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Mobile schools proposed to spread education

Sujay Mehdudia

New initiative to provide quality education in Govt. schools

NEW DELHI: : Reaching out to the street children, the distressed girl child, children residing in JJ clusters and red light areas, the Delhi Government has decided to launch a major offensive under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan to enrol lakhs of such children and make them literate. For this it would soon be putting in place mobile schools in all the districts, initiate steps for inter-linking of schools with net-based picture projection technology and provide incentives in the shape of health and nutrition.

The approval for the multi-crore initiative was granted on Thursday during an important meeting of the Education Department held under the Education Minister, Arvinder Singh Lovely. Interestingly, the budget under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan has got a major boost with Rs. 123 crores being allocated for the current year compared to Rs. 19 crore last year. "Our effort is to provide the best possible quality education and computer aided learning system to children in government schools and also those who are under-privileged or have been denied education till now for some reason or the other. Lakhs of street children are unable to get education and the focus is to first provide them basic education and then motivate them to join the regular schools,'' Mr. Lovely stated.

Interaction

Under the new initiative, it would now be possible for the children of government schools to interact with celebrities, their favourite sports stars and other prominent personalities by sitting in their classrooms. The scheme, planned to be implemented initially in 200 schools of the Capital, would entail installation of huge television screens in the classrooms along with web cameras and internet connections providing for video conferencing facility. All such units would be inter-linked with the headquarters in one of the schools.

The Government would then invite celebrities and prominent personalities to interact with the children through this system. The children, without moving out of their schools or classrooms would be able to chat with the celebrities and also pose questions to them. "For instance, the Indian cricket team opener, Virender Sehwag, is a product of the Delhi Government school. The Department could approach him with a request to interact and motivate the children through this system. We will be fine-tuning the whole process once it takes off,'' Secretary (Education), Reena Ray, informed.

Known for taking up education reforms in her earlier tenure in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Ms. Ray said the focus of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan would be to target those children who are unable to get even the basic educational inputs due to various reasons.

School books

For instance, under the mobile schools concept, customised buses would be despatched in all the districts of the Capital with the association of self-help groups. These buses would be equipped with school books, literature on various subjects, books on elementary education, toys and computers and would be assigned tasks in areas like the red light area of G.B. Road, street children in various areas, children living in JJ clusters and other such locations where education is virtually inaccessible. These buses would move during the day and even in the night so that maximum numbers are covered under the scheme.

"We are planning to seek the help of the international funding agencies to provide us with certain infrastructure requirements to make this programme successful. It is important to target those who are unable to get quality education and give them a feeling of being part of the mainstream,'' Ms. Ray added.

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