Srinagar, Aug 24: Putting a question mark on oft-repeated objective of Jammu and Kashmir Government about achieving 100 percent literacy, more than 43000 children are out of school in the state. Among them, 21000 have never attended the school, despite crores of rupees being spent under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan for brining such children to the schools.
According to the data of School Education Department, about 43153 children who include 19426 boys and 23727 girls are out of school (dropouts plus who never enrolled) in JK in 2012.
About 22041 children have dropped out from schools. Among them, 9296 are boys and remaining 12745 girls.
What is more worrying for the state, which has most illiterate population among northern states, about 10130 boys and 10982 girls within the age group of 6-14 years have never gone to school. The literacy rate of Jammu and Kashmir is pegged at around 68 percent. As per 2011 census, JK has over 72.45 lakh literate persons including 43.70 lakh males and 28.74 lakh females.
The statistics reveal that number of out-of-school children (OOSC) in the state was 36281 in 2011 and 6483 among them were brought to the schools in the same year.
Meanwhile, educationists said the number of OOSC is a matter of worry and it also points out the failure of Government in universalization of education. Noted educationist of the Valley, Prof A. G. Madhosh says there is need of revamping and restructuring the education system for motivating OOSC to come to schools.
“Parents today not only want their children to go to school, but are also demanding quality education and marketable education. These need must be addressed to motivate the children to study,” he said.
Besides, Madhosh said, dearth of infrastructure and faculty also turns away students from schools.
“The drop-out children should be provided incentives as they come from poor economic background,” he said.
Dr Nusrat Andrabi, who is convener of the education wing of Wakf Board, says: “If 43000 children are out of the school, it means government has failed in its objective of providing education to all.”
She holds the parents as well as poor quality of the education responsible for the scenario.
“In rural areas, the prevalence of child labour is one of the reasons for it as parents send their children to eke out livelihood, instead of schools,” she said, while criticizing the quality of education in government schools.
“Even in some cases students of 5th and 6th classes of government schools don’t know about the alphabets, not to talk about writing their name. The policy of promotion of the students in such cases is also questionable,” she said.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 24 Aug 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 25 Aug 2012 00:00:00 IST