Kolhapur: The district primary education department has vowed to bring the out-of-school students, if any, under mainstream education by August 15 this year.Officials of the department said extensive surveys are already underway and it will conclude on June 30. "The survey will be once again revisited by the education department in association with city-based non-government organisations (NGOs) in July to find about migrated children or the ones who are not studying at the moment," said the official.District primary education officer Subhash Chougule said, "At present, a 15-day survey of respective villages, wherein there is a zilla parishad school, is underway. Teachers in these schools will have to visit respective villages and ensure to enroll every kid, who is eligible for primary education under the Right to Education (RTE) Act."He added, "The survey started on June 15 and will conclude on June 30. We have already arranged other surveys for the month of July with the help of NGOs to ensure that not a single child remains without education."According to Chougule, the issue of out-of-school children is generally faced when kids of brick kiln workers, labourers of migrating families in various parts of the district accompany their parents, leaving their education."We are always on the lookout for such students and make sure they get proper education. If the children are from neighbouring state, say Karnataka, then private schools on the border, which offer Kannada medium education, are instructed to enrol such kids," he said.He added that the department is sure of bringing in all the eligible students under the mainstream education within the said date. It should be noted that the RTE Act, 2009 mandates all children aged between 6 and 14 years to be enrolled in schools, show regular attendance and get a formal education.The state's survey was prompted by this mandate and to identify the actual number of out-of-school children. There was lot of criticism about gross under-reporting of out-of-school children in the survey carried out in July 2015 and January 2016.

Stay updated with all the Latest Kolhapur headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.