New govt scheme aims for 100% school enrolment

The Central government plans to launch a scheme to bring all the out of school children in the education system to take the percentage of school enrolment to 100 per cent in the coming years. The scheme called School Chalo Abhiyan will be launched by next year by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Currently, the enrollment percentage in schools is around 98 per cent, but the government wants to make it 100 per cent in the next couple of years, as the two per cent also involves a large number of children, specially in rural areas.

"We will launch a scheme called School Chalo Abhiyan from next year to bring all the children who are out of school in the education system. We will involve the common public in this plan as well. If someone feels that a child who should be in school is not able to attend, they can contact the schools and get them into the system," HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

This is one of the ideas of the government to take the literacy rate up to 100 per cent. "When we got independence, literacy rate was at at 18 per cent, now it is 81 per cent. There has been a lot of progress, yet this is not enough. 19 per cent of the population is still not educated. We should ask the children to help their parents who are uneducated in attaining basic literacy," he added.

Javadekar was speaking in an event themed 'Literacy in Digital World' on the occasion of International Literacy Day.

During the event held in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu presented the Saakshar Bharat Awards. The awards were given to the best performing state, districts, gram panchayats and NGOs.

Speaking at the event, Naidu said, "India still has the challenge to achieve 100 per cent literacy. Education empowers people, and it is an ammunition to fight discrimination and injustice."