Shopian: In a remarkable enrollment drive, the Department of Education in south Kashmir’s Shopian district Tuesday enrolled hundreds of children in schools as part of the Talaash survey.
An official said that over 600 Out-of-School Children (OOSC) were enrolled from different educational zones across the district.
Zonal Education Officer (ZEO), Shopian zone, Javed Ahamd Bhat told Greater Kashmir that around 143 children were enrolled alone from Education Zone Shopian.
Bhat said that most of such children belonged to the tribal Gujjar and Bakerwal communities.
According to Bhat, teachers, heads of different institutes, and cluster resource persons toiled hard to prod parents into sending their children to schools.
Similarly children from other zones of the district – Imam Sahab, Keegam, and Vehil – were also enrolled in the schools.
Last year, the J&K administration launched a mobile app Talaash for mapping OOSC.
Through data analysis, the initiative aims at enrolling and keeping a track of OOSC.
The app is being used to identify school dropouts and children who have never been to school.
Muhammad Ashraf, a parent said that he was elated to see his child back in school.
“I am thankful to the teachers who re-enrolled my 13-year-old son in school,” Ashraf said.