Piyush Bhusari, TNN | Jun 29, 2015, 02.08PM IST
KOLHAPUR: The primary education department in Kolhapur has admitted to its inability to meet the June 26 deadline set by the state's government for linking school students' admission registration numbers to Aadhar cards because of unavailability of machines.
Officials in the department said the number of students, around 73,000, was too high as against the number of machines, around 80, made available for the drive and this difference has made implementation of the project difficult in the district.
The Maharashtra government has decided to link school students' admission registration numbers to Aadhar card in order to effectively implement the Right to Education Act on the ground that this will facilitate tracking of a child in the education system. The linking will help the government verify whether students are enrolled in schools and parents can also be kept in the loop over their child's educational progress, a government resolution (GR) issued by the state said.
Block education officers have been asked to compile data about the number of children with Aadhaar cards and forward those to respective district collectorates. The government has also asked the local administration to publicise the campaign. The RTE Act ensures that children in the 6-14 age group are not left out of the educational system. The GR said the biggest challenge to ensure success of the RTE Act is to bring non-school going children in the education fold.
The department in Kolhapur had started with the elementary school students' Aadhaar card registration across the district in May. After a review meeting in the first week of May, district collector Amit Saini had granted 20 additional machines, which then went up to 80. The target was to cover 73,963 students.
District primary education officer Smita Gaud said the target could not be achieved because the number of machines was too less to reach out to the potential destinations on time. Besides, the grouping of schools for the Aadhaar registration drive could also not be organized, she said.
"The department does not have the number of students registered as part of the drive from May. We have asked the block development officers to revert to us within three days with the number. The department was willing to complete the drive on time, but inadequate machines and the holidays were a challenge," Gaud said.
The preference to the enrolment of the pre-primary children's Aadhaar cards was also one of the factors leading to the poor response. "There is a meeting with the district collectorate on June 30, where we will discuss the current situation and ask the authorities concerned to provide us with the more machines to complete the drive," she added.
The demand of more machines can, however, put the government notification useless, as according to it the drive was supposed to be over by June 26 because of low academic pressure and holidays till June 14. "If the department again organises such kind of a drive, when are we supposed to conduct classes? It will put an unnecessary burden on the teachers in the middle of the academic year," said a ZP school teacher.
The review report prepared by the district primary education department, a copy of which is with the TOI, Kolhapur has 2.74 lakh students eligible for the cards, of whom 2.11 lakh students have been already enrolled with it and the department was suppose to get the remaining 73,963 students enrolled by June 26.
Anuradha Bhosale, vice-chairman at Avani, a city-based non-governmental organisation working in the field of education, said, "The administration always plans big. But when it comes to implementation, it cannot even execute the basic plans. Aadhaar card is necessary and it will wed out the bogus students. The process should be completed at the earliest."