Welcome to JEPC

The effort to provide access to out of school children and ensure their regular participation and completion of elementary education with satisfactory levels of learning is a part of Universal Elementary Education. Planning was in a comprehensive manner to cover all children (6-14 age groups) through schools or alternative arrangements.

The focus was on ensuring participation of all out of school children living in small, un-served habitations and other categories of children like working children, migrating children and deprived urban children. In addition considerable stress was given on quality issues such as introduction of appropriate child-centred , multi-level teaching strategies through intensive teacher training, development of appropriate TLM and pupil evaluation practices and regular academic support to Education Volunteers. Besides this innovative education component take the support of Govt. and Govt. added school, Private school& NGOs to run non-residential/residential bridge courses and innovative education centers. The groups of out of school children are heterogeneous one. Such diverse conditions and differing needs of out of school children cannot be addressed through a single strategy. Therefore Strategy for heterogenous group of out of school children with their differing needs ware formulated separately. The nature of out of school children were categorized as follows:

Nature of the group	children living in remote/access less habitations/never enrolled
	children of families who migrate
	children engaged in non-wage earning labour
	children engaged in wage earning labour
	children from deprived urban communities
	drop outs

STEPS FOLLOWED TO DEVELOP STRATEGIES FOR OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE YEAR 10-11

i) Block wise/urban agglomeration area wise number and % of out of school children with age and gender breakup and updated Village Education Register (VER) at school level - taken into consideration.

ii) Pockets within each block and urban areas of these out of school children identified.

iv) Assessed their need, reasons for being out of school and other background details of these out of school children to formulate their education intervention, strategies.

v) In addition, children who are attending the following types of schools like: Madarsa/Makhtab where only Dini Talim/Majhabi Talim/ religious education is being given was estimated.

vi) Interventions in following habitations/pockets for specified categories of children :

b) Out of school children of Muslim communities especially adolescent girls, children involved in carpet making, Bidi making etc.

d) Habitations/pockets where the proportion of out of school children is very high compared to district average

e) Children belonging to the most vulnerable groups. e.g.- hard core wage earning child labour, migrant children from rural areas, deprived urban children (street children, rag pickers/beggars/hawkers, railway platform children, children working in shops/dhabas/hotels in cities and towns)

· Non- residential bridge course for different duration (3/6/9 months) for rural children who are out of school (9-14) and for slum children (9-14) of urban areas

· Seasonal Hostel /Net schools for schools with migrant children (6-14 years)

In view of heterogeneity among out of school children this demands diversified approaches and strategies for their education which are:-

i) Intervention for mainstreaming of out of school children – viz. bridge courses, back to school camps in may 2010.

ii) Strategies for very specific, difficult group of children who cannot be mainstreamed.

iii) Strategies for education of children who migrate – mapping of migration pockets (inter district/intra district, inter-state /intra state) through NGO is exercised for opening of residential bridge course centers, net schools opened in sending end to stop migration.

iv) Bridge Courses both residential and non-residential which support mainstreaming of children into formal schools followed by their admission in appropriate grades through age appropriate competency level. (children of 8-11 and 11-14)

a) Children of age group 5+ to 8 who will be directly mainstreamed in formal school system.

c) Girls (age group 8-11) covered through RBC. (duration-12 months) The children and the teacher stay at the centre. At the end children sit for the class v exam. And join class vi

d) Boys (age group 8-9) covered through NRBC (duration-12 months).The children are prepared for admission in appropriate classes. Boys (age group 10-11) are covered through RBC to provide age specific learning before mainstreaming. (duration-12 months) where a common examination is conducted. The children after completion of the exam continue their studies.

e) Girls ST/SC (age group 11-14) covered through RBC. (duration-12 months) where varieties of activities are conducted to create interest in the learners. Apart from preparing them for class V and VII curriculum for them also cover issues related to empowerment of girls. Boys ST/SC (age group 11-14) are covered in rural area through RBC (duration-12 months).

These centres' location kept nearer to K.G.B.V. so that after the completion of bridge course, these girls can be mainstreamed in K.G.B.V. to continue their education.

Out of school children (6-14) staying in the catchments areas of the schools are enrolled and registered with the concerned schools. Children of age group 6-8 years were directly put in to classes I, II and III. Regular PTA meeting are organized to make them understand that children must be sent to schools regularly. Children of 9-14 years are enrolled to Non Residential Bridge Course or Residential Bridge Course as per need.

These are the temporary centres (attached to schools) where over aged out of school children of age group 9 to 14 years are motivated to join. They are helped to acquire their age specific competencies through an accelerated teaching learning method within a short duration so that they can be mainstreamed to age appropriate classes in the formal schools with which it is attached. These types of centers run in rural areas and in urban slums for non wage earning out of school children.

These are the residential centres for hard to reach children, adolescent girls. They are helped to acquire age specific competencies in residential mode. This centres are run in rural areas as well as in urban areas. Children of primitive tribes, ST, SC and Children from minority community (Muslim) are given priority.

These centers target hard core wage earning child labourers who are unwilling to leave their jobs. Outreach workers interact with their employers and request them to send the children to drop-in-centers near the work site. This drop-in-centers runs for at least 8 hours. Initially children are motivated to drop-in whenever they feel like as per their convenience. However, besides educational inputs given at the centre, rapport with these children are built and various attractive activities like games, art & craft, origami, excursion are introduced. Method of teaching is activity based and through project mode based on the minimum competencies that they are required to acquire. It is to be noted that all children may not come to the centre at one time. The name explains the nature of the centre i.e. children can drop in whenever they feel like.

Some hard core child labourers who are willing to give up job are taken up from their existing work and are put to a residential centre located away from the work site. Here, other than education the children enjoy other facilities like various types of co-curricular activities like sports, gardening, art, music, theatre, music etc. The centers have provision of health check up, counseling, and bathing facilities. Regular counseling and health check up are the programme initiatives to overcome their physical and mental problems. They are given educational inputs based on the academic package specially developed for them. The mode of teaching is activity oriented and through various project works. The aim of the centre is to reunite the child with their families or to put them in hostels or residential schools. After 14 years they are tried to be introduced to suitable vocational training.

Work education programme under AIE centers for 11-14 years age group children started in well formulated manner. Certain skills during education have been developed to prepare them for world of work which will develop a sense of dignity of labour. It will ensure special skill in children for better life chances. WEP can be used as instrument to ensure children's participation and completion of elementary level of education with satisfactory level of learning.

Apart from children who are currently not doing schooling of any form, children attending Madarsa/Makhtab in which only religious education is given and in Sanskrit Pathshalas where children are not taught, mathematics, EVS and other subjects are also categorized under not attending school. They are supported under SSA. Children reading in recognized Madarsa/Makhtab are covered by

Children reading in unrecognized Makhtab/Madarsa are covered under AIE intervention by providing

In Jharkhand elite private schools are involved in the towns and cities to reach out to Deprived Urban Children (DUC) and slums under Public Private Partnership. In one hand most of these schools (Private) posses space, infrastructure, teacher, over all management and provides quality education to children, on the other honorarium to teachers, text books to children, teacher training and TLMs are the contributions from JEPC (Public).

The following schemes are implemented by the Govt. of Jharkhand through departments like social welfare, tribal welfare, Labour Dept., Health, PHED and NCLP.

· Intervention of ECCE integrated with ICDS in coordination with social welfare department.

The following activities were undertaken during Fin. Year 2010-11 to cover out of school Children: