The Ministry of Human Resource Development issued fresh guidelines to states and union territories about education of children of migrant workers who have returned home due to the lockdown imposition in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country.
The ministry has strictly asked the states and UTs to ensure that names of children who have migrated to other areas during the pandemic are not struck-off from the school rolls.
Such children should be noted in the database as "migrated" or "temporarily unavailable", the HRD said. The students' tentative place of stay during this period may also be noted. Such children, who have left, may be shown separately in enrolment as temporarily unavailable or migrated.
"While all care must be taken to ensure that their names are not struck off the rolls (as the possibility of their return anytime is always there), their numbers may be reported class-wise to the Directorate of Education to compensate for any input costs to be incurred by the school such as mid-day meals, distribution of textbooks and uniforms if not already completed," the HRD Ministry said in its guidelines.
The ministry also suggested that
The ministry has suggested the state government may direct all schools to give admission to any child who has recently returned to village without asking for any other documents, except for some identity proof.
"They should not ask for transfer certificates or proof of class attended earlier. The information provided by the child's parents may be assumed to be correct and taken as such for giving admission to the child in the relevant class in his or her neighbourhood government or government-aided school," the guidelines said.
Amid the rising Covid-19 cases in the country, the Central government on had imposed a nationwide lockdown from 25 March in order to contain the spread of the virus. This forced thousands of migrant workers and their families out of jobs and rendered them homeless and penniless, forcing them to return to their native village and home states.
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