Maharashtra school survey to include unaided ones for the first time

Soon, parents of children studying at unrecognised schools (private unaided across boards) will be able to access in-depth information about the school, including details like the number of hours their child spends at school, the constitution of the school management committee, the periodicals available in the library, etc.

The human resource development ministry’s department of school education, which conducts annual surveys of schools, will for the first time include unrecognised schools in its ongoing survey for the 2010-2011 academic year.

It will thus cover all schools including government, local body, private aided and private unaided ones. The department will also make individual school reports, which will be available on the ministry’s website by the next academic year.

The District Information System of Education (DISE) report is being produced in collaboration with the National University of Educational Planning and Administration. Last year’s survey covered 1.3 million schools in India. With the coverage of unrecognised schools, its reach is set to increase.

The report will include several new variables to monitor the preparedness of schools for the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. According to a government official, the DISE report will help the government see if schools are disabled-friendly.

“The questionnaire seeks information on the availability of ramps with hand rails in schools. The table on children with special needs will also include cerebral palsy, autism and learning disability as ‘nature of disability’,” said the official.

Schools will also have to submit class-wise and gender-wise annual attendance rates for the department to keep a check on dropouts.

Details on the number of students who have joined grade I with pre-school experience and the number of children enrolled under the 25% quota for the weaker sections will also have to be produced.

A senior official from the state education department, said, “The survey will be first of its kind and will help the government monitor schools. Having a ready database on private schools is definitely handy. Most of the times, it is difficult to seek information from the private and unaided schools.”