The National Education Day was celebrated in Krishnagiri on Monday to mark the birth anniversary of the first Education Minister of Independent India, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
The celebration was organised jointly by the State Education Department and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Krishnagiri.
Speaking on the occasion, V. Prabhakar Gnanakkan, UNICEF District Coordinator, Child Friendly Village Planning (CFVP), said that the UNICEF has initiated steps to sensitise children and parents on the Right to Education Act (RTE) 2009. The UNICEF coordinators and village level coordinators will issue pamphlets in detail about the role of parents and children as per the RTE to each and every school in the district during this month. The pamphlets will have features of the RTE Act.
Besides these, the UNICEF trained cultural troupes will also organise street plays on eradication of child marriage and child labour.
To ease the government in its endeavour to implement RTE in the State, the volunteers of UNICEF will visit all the 1,640 schools in the district with a set of questionnaire on infrastructure facilities in the schools. The coordinators will make all efforts to bring dropouts back to school through community mobilisation programmes.
“The Right to Education Act 2009 was enacted by the Union Government with an objective to provide basic education to every child. An awareness campaign is the need of the hour to make the provisions of this Act reach the public'' Mr. Prabhakar Gnanakkan said.
M. Baskaran, Chief Educational Officer, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, said that the district is pioneering in implementation of School Sanitation Scheme through UNICEF intervention like creating awareness about hand washing, wearing footwear and monitoring the implementation of School Sanitation Scheme by giving star status to the schools with the SSA. He also said that besides this, the UNICEF has also undertaken the programme to monitor the school dropouts from the districts.
Several programmes will be held to spread awareness on Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009. The School Education department has also instructed the district level officials to circulate and read out the messages of the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh and Minister of Human Resources and Development Kapil Sibal and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to the students.
