CHENNAI: In a first, the elementary education directorate will utilise data of children born in 2018 from the health department to ensure universal enrolment in the state. The directorate has instructed headmasters and teachers to contact parents of these children to confirm their enrolment in schools. The initiative aims to reach out to more than eight lakh parents across the state in the next two months.
The directorate has got statistics on children born in 2018 who will now be five-years-old. The data includes details such as birthplace, birth date, parents’ names and contact numbers, all of which have been mapped into the Education Management Information System (EMIS) for each panchayat union. Headmasters can access this information through the EMIS app for their respective localities.
If the child is not enrolled, the parents should be persuaded to enrol them by explaining various government schemes, including information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives, implemented in government schools.
“We are spending Rs 1,200 crore for improvement of government primary and middle schools like smart classrooms, hi-tech labs and distribution of tabs. This apart, various initiatives to improve infrastructure of government schools are also in the pipeline. The government is also ready to increase the teacher strength suitably by redeployment and new recruitment. Due to this, we have set the target to enrol 5.5 lakh students in government schools this year,” said a senior official from the directorate. Usually, the enrolment in government and aided schools is around 4 lakh.
The official added that the school education department helpline (14417) has already reached out to around 15,000 parents under the initiative. There are around 20,000 headmasters in elementary schools who will reach out to eight lakh parents. The department has set a target to enrol four lakh students before the end of this month, he added. According to the department data, 3 lakh students have enrolled in government schools of which 2.77 lakh have joined Class 1.