‘Talaash’ App Is Helping Drop-Out Children To Go Back To Schools In J&K

In an effort to track the education of children across the state, J&K government’s education department has set up an app named ‘Talaash’ so as to get the drop out school kids back to their schools.

“Under the ‘Aao School Chalein Campaign’, the UT administration has enrolled 1.65 lakh children in the last one year. The ‘Talaash’ app is being used to identify those who had to drop out of schools due to some reasons in the past few years,”.

“Till now, 86,000 such boys and girls have been identified, and they are being enrolled.

Student enrolment in government schools in J&K was steadily declining before 2019, but in the last two years it has increased by 14.5 per cent.

“Sustained efforts were being made for early childhood care and education as recommended by the national education policy.

“In the three years before 2019, there was a continuous decrease in enrolment in J&K government schools. However, in the last two years, enrolment has increased by 14.5 per cent.

Kindergartens to be established

Despite constraints, 1.24 lakh children were enrolled for early child care education, and it has been decided that this year, 2,000 kindergartens will be established.

J&K had an estimated 27500 out-of-school children (OoSC) comprising two categories- Never enrolled and Dropouts.

There are various provisions regarding mainstreaming of OoSC in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, MoE guidelines on Special Training and MHRD Clarification on Provisions of RTE Act, 2009.

The application is meant for use on smartphones by teachers and others.

It will also facilitate effective monitoring and tracking of out-of-school children as they are identified and enrolled in schools and special training programmes, the spokesman said.

The Union territory has an estimated 27,500 out-of-school children (OOSC), comprising two categories – never enrolled and dropouts.