22 Dec :Government on Monday informed the Lok Sabha that more than 4.83 lakh rescued child labourers have been mainstreamed into the formal education system through the schools run under its flagship programme National Child Labour Project (NCLP).
In reply to a question, Minister for Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes stated that in an evaluation of the NCLP project, the government felt that these special schools need to be continued and should be relocated to areas where they are most required.
The evaluation report found that the enrolment rate at the NCLP run schools was as high as 95 per cent with attendance averaging at 75 per cent.
The evaluation terms the achievement as a "fair impact".The evaluation identified that selection of teachers are crucial to the success of the project as it has shown "very positive results" when they were trained.
Regarding mainstreaming of children, Fernandes said the evaluation report noted that schools using the formal school curriculum showed better levels of mainstreaming, while schools using non-formal education had varied success in mainstreaming children.
"Vocational training in most project suffers from a paucity of funds and is not based on a scientific need based assessment of labour demand in the area," noted the report.
While aspects like awareness generation, convergence and infrastructure of these schools have been identified as areas requiring attention, he said the report also sought appointment of a full time Director for the project.
It observed that the time is crucial for consolidation and expansion with certain modifications in structure and content.