MoE rolls out 100-day action strategy to energise school education

Srinagar, July 12: The Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL), Ministry of Education (MoE), has launched a 100-day action plan to bring vibrancy to the school education sector.

The action programme has been launched as part of the short-term measures devised by the MoE and communicated to the respective School Education Department (SED) in a meeting recently chaired by Secretary DSEL in New Delhi.

As part of the programme, a special enrollment drive for Out of School Children (OoSC) including Children with Special Needs (CwSN) will be conducted by the Education Department while intensifying the use of the PRASHAST App for screening of CwSN in the states and union territories.

The Education Department will also intensify capacity building of teachers and special educators on the use of the PRASHAST App and conduct block-level identification camps for the screening, identification, and certification of CwSN children.

Notably, given the lack of a uniform disability screening checklist for schools that covers the 21 disabilities as per the RPWD Act 2016 and acting on the vision of NEP 2020, NCERT has developed the Disability Screening Checklist for Schools and a mobile app-Pre Assessment Holistic Screening Tool (PRASHAST) for schools.

PRASHAST app will help for school-based screening of 21 disability conditions recognized in the RPwD Act 2016, and generate the school-level report, for further sharing with the authorities for initiating the certification process, as per guidelines of Samagra Shiksha.

Meanwhile, as per the 100-day programme, every school will organise ‘Tithi Bhojan’ to mark the birthday celebrations of the students with community participation, ULLAS Mela, and also organise summer camps in schools on the theme of ‘Mission LiFE”.

Notably, holding summer camps in government schools has never been a part of the academic calendar in Kashmir. However, with the launch of the 100-day programme, the school children may get the opportunity to have summer camps in schools here.

The MoE has also asked the Education Department of the respective states and UTs to conduct a special enrollment drive for Out of School Children (OoSC) including CwSN for bringing all children into the education system.

Over the years, the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) held annual enrollment drives and claimed to have registered one new admission in each drive.

However, recently, the MoE in its report said that the enrollment in J&K Schools declined by one lac students from 2021-22 to 2022-23 academic year.

Notably, the 100-day action plan has been formulated by all Ministries to accomplish the set goals for a brighter future for the country.

“The Department of School Education and Literacy, under the supervision of the Secretary DSEL Sanjay Kumar has charted an action plan of 15 major tasks which are to be initiated and exercised within these 100 days,” the official document reads.

These tasks have been planned keeping in view all the centrally sponsored schemes of the department and the revenue for these activities shall be drawn out of allocated funds of Samagra Shiksha Scheme, ULLAS, PM SHRI and PM Poshan schemes.

The launch of new textbooks based on the National Curriculum for School Education (NCF-SE) is also one of the key points for the 100-day plan.

Under the initiative, learning through monuments as a part of the ‘Virasat Aur Vikas Roadmap’ under which two modules are being prepared by NCERT on Vikas and Virasat would be ready for release by July 29, 2024.

“In addition, schools will organise exposure visits for students to historically important places, heritage monuments to increase their understanding and knowledge of Indian culture will be encouraged,” it reads.