Identify an out-of-school kid in the city and get Rs 1,000 reward
In a bid to ensure that every child in the city gets his right to education, the state government plans to introduce a scheme of awarding Rs 1,000 to any person who helps the government identify an out-of-school child.
Education Minister Vinod Tawde said that of the Rs 1,000, the taluka officer’s fund and the district education officer’s fund will contribute Rs 500 and Rs 250 respectively, while the rest Rs 250 will be from the education minister’s salary.
The state education department had conducted the first round of such an out-of-school survey in July last year and identified about 56,000 students from across the state who were not going to schools.
While the second survey, which was conducted this year by NGOs, education department officials, and NSS volunteers, identified 10,162 such children.
The government will conduct two or three more rounds of surveys to find out the number of children not studying in schools across Maharashtra, after which it will introduce the reward-based scheme.
# Did you know?
According to Right to Education Act (RTE), which was enacted on 4 August 2009, every child between the age of 6 and 14 years is entitled to free and compulsory education. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the act came into force on April 1, 2010.