With 1748 volunteers, J&K covers 32k kids, 97% of target

Jammu: Intending to deliver on its promise of providing access to education to the children of nomadic population, the government of Jammu and Kashmir had reportedly made available 1521 seasonal centres during the year 2020-21.
These seasonal centres for providing education facilities to the nomadic children as they migrate from one place of the Union Territory to another in search of green pastures, had engaged 1748 Seasonal Educational Volunteers for 2020-21 and taught 32544 pupil.
During the meeting of the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India for considering the Annual Work Plan & Budget 2021-22 under Samagra Shiksha for the Union Territory of J&K, representative from Education Department J&K stated, “Access to schooling facilities for the nomadic population has always remained priority of the UT,” as they put forward the statistics.
Following this, the central government asked J&K Government to ensure that children, especially of the age group 6-14 years, of the nomadic communities do not lose touch with their education during their migration from summer to winter stops and vice versa.
“The seasonal centers should be established during the migration, and should be tagged with the nearest schools so as to ensure the children do not remain out of the schools even during that season of the year,” the official document reads.
Given their lifestyle, socio-economic-political backwardness, and lack of implementation of various laws and measures meant for them, the literacy rate of tribal population in J&K is only 50.60 % which is far lower than the average literacy 58.96 % of tribal at national level as per the Census 2011. Further, the overall literacy rate of the Scheduled Tribes as per the Census 2011 is 50.6% which is much lower than the national average of 58.96% aggregated for all STs.
It may be mentioned here that J&K Government had envisaged ‘Mobile Schools’ in late 1970s for educational upliftment of nomadic population, such as Gujjar-Bakerwal, living in remote and difficult areas. The Educational Volunteers are engaged usually from the same communities every year for the purpose.
In 2020, Administrative approval was granted for ‘establishment of seasonal centers (Mobile Schools) in already identified areas for a period of four months or till the migration phase is over, and were allowed to operate strictly as per SOPs prescribed by the Government in view of the COVID19 pandemic’.
Approximately 33504 number of children were proposed by the Samagra Shiksha that were to be covered by establishing seasonal centers as per the recommendations in the AWP&B 2020-21.
Chief Education Officers of different districts had identified the number of nomadic students for these ‘mobile schools’ as - Kupwara (1080), Anantnag (1807), Bandera (589), Baramulla (1272), Budgam (2415), Doda (3126), Ganderbal (1412), Jammu (147), Kishtwar (2363), Kulgam (2193), Kupwara (1080), Poonch (7400), Pulwama (1675), Rajouri (1777), Rambam (950), Reasi (3422), Samba (26), Shopian (1821), Udhampur (29).
In a recent interview Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Secretary to Government Tribal Affairs Department, J&K, had said that the administration has conducted a survey to identify hamlets in the region where schools need to be built.
“This information has been provided to the Education department and the work plan has been chalked out, work will start soon,” he had informed.