Official callousness drives out-of-school survey NGO to quit

Nagpur: In a major embarrassment for the state education department, the nodal agency for out-of-school kids survey in Vidarbha has decided to quit. NGO Sangharsh Vahini's senior member, Dinanath Waghmare, sent his resignation letter to state school education minister Vinod Tawde on Friday citing the survey's improper methodology and callous attitude of officials.

Mukund Adewar, member of Sangharsh Vahini, said, "We have been telling the educations official repeatedly about the flaws in their approach but nobody listened to us. Waghmare's letter cites various examples of how education officers never took this matter seriously. The survey was to begin from January 15 but meetings with stakeholders started just a few days ago. Even National Social Service (NSS) volunteers had made it clear that they would not work without travel allowance but nobody cared." Sangharsh Vahini's decision comes just hours after education commissioner Purshottam Bhapkar held a meeting at Nagpur to take stock of the survey's progress. In his letter, Waghmare wrote, "Even Bhapkar expressed surprise as to how only 24 out-of-school kids were found till now as he himself saw many near the Tajbagh area."

The NGO members told TOI that, according to them, there are just over 800 out-of-school kids in districts adjoining Nagpur. Adewar said, "The education department should have taken the help of anganwadi teachers and health officials at the village level because they have complete knowledge about the area. They know each and every family in the village and are even aware about the seasonal migration." Sangharsh Vahini also said that NSS volunteers were not given proper training on conducting the survey and this could result in incorrect statistics.

Education commissioner Bhapkar was not available for comments. The survey will end on January 30 across the state.
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