aExcelsior Correspondent
KISHTWAR, Nov 18: District administration Kishtwar, under the guidance and overall superintendence of Deputy Commissioner, Dr Devansh Yadav, today received the SKOCH Gold Award at New Delhi for the district’s outstanding efforts in main streaming the out of school children and bringing them back to school.
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India’s highest independent award – themed “Out of School Children, Back to school initiative” was bestowed to Kishtwar District in Gold category. The DC received the award and was accompanied by Prahlad Bhagat, Chief Education Officer, and Riaz Ahmed Butt Sr. Lecturer DIET Kishtwar
Emerging as second award winner in Jammu and Kashmir after JKRLM, J&K, SKOCH award marks a significant milestone for the district administration Kishtwar as the recognition reflects its remarkable accomplishment .
The award is a recognition for district Kishtwar for mainstreaming around two thousand out of School children (OoSC) identified by Directorate of SAMAGRA SHIKSHA Jammu and Kashmir through an app launched in March 2021. The aim of SAMAGRA SHIKSHA was to enumerate and keep track of Out of School Children (OOSC) in a timely and qualitative manner, through intensive data analysis and monitoring.
After identification, Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar Dr Devansh swiftly took several actions to tackle the problem. The district administration, in collaboration with DIET, Education Department and senior functionaries initiated the project ‘Talaash’ in 2022 under the aegis of the Directorate Samagra Shiksha J&K with the vision and goal to achieve 100 percent enrolment of the out-of-school children who were mostly from Schedule tribe community.
Efforts like organising special camps, awareness at micro level, opening of special winter coaching centres and for the same arrangements of logistics were made by the district administration. The rate of OoSCs was on a higher side in the far-flung areas of the district, like Drabshalla, Chatroo, Nagseni, and Bounjwah, particularly among ST communities. The reluctant parents of these children were convinced to send them to school by administration by providing several incentives etc.
The out of school children were given special attention and education in winter coaching institutions established exclusively for them and immediately after their enrolment a baseline test was conducted, followed by a special bridge course the material for which was prepared with the help of DIET Kishtwar and Director SAMAGRA Deep Raj who not only provided useful funds but also helped district administration in the noble cause by other means.
An endline test was conducted for all OoSC after five to six months of special teaching followed by their admission in nearby schools. Not only this, after their mainstreaming in schools, the services of seasonal teachers were provided to them in their dhokas when most of them move to mountains during summers.
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