Telangana government will issue a unique identification number

The Telangana government will issue a unique identification number for each of the 55 lakh children in government, private and corporate schools as also madarsas in the coming academic year, to track children out of schools.

A rough estimate by a study already undertaken by the Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) in urban areas and Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) in rural areas has indicated that there could be 25,000 children out of schools, according to Director of School Education G. Kishan.

He said data of the joint study was being fed to computers and the results would be out within a week. After retrieving the information from the system, steps will be taken to send the school dropouts to bridge schools to prepare them for enrolment in classes of their age.

The girls will be admitted to Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs).s

Mr. Kishan also said that the data basis for 95 per cent of the children was already available as they were seeded with Aadhaar.

In the case of the remaining five per cent, it was difficult to fix their bonafides because there could be double entries — children may have taken admission in one school, but opted for another. The children may also be untraceable due to transfer or migration of parents. So, the missing nature of five per cent children was always dynamic.

The figure could at best be brought down to two or three per cent. The unique IDs will also be issued to children studying in Central government assisted schools like KGBV, model schools and residential schools, Mr. Kishan added.

The government had a few months ago launched door-to-door survey in urban and rural areas to identify out-of-school children on the basis of three categories: (1) those who were never enrolled in schools (2) those who dropped out of schools and (3) those who are either working or migrated to other places with their families. Reasons for migration of parents, their work places, wages and hours of work were also ascertained. The self-help groups were given the responsibility of conducting the survey in rural areas.