SHILLONG: A one day meeting of the minority cell of National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) held in Shillong on Friday stressed the need to undertake a study aimed at reducing the flow of children from rural areas to urban schools.
The meeting was held at North East Regional Institute of Education (NERIE).
According to one of the recommendations made during the meeting, more research studies needed to be undertaken for rural areas particularly in North Eastern States with an objective of reducing the exodus of children from rural to urban schools. The research studies should focus on uncovering the issues related to quality of education of children studying in rural areas in this region, the recommendation said.
A number of issues were raised and discussions held with the objectives to enrich the existing programmes including the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan( SSA) and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhijan (RMSA) to initiate new programmes to meet the educational needs of minorities especially in the Northeastern region.
Another recommendation was to have capacity building of teachers teaching in minority run institutions.
The training must focus on the modern developments in education including the National Curriculum Framework (NCF, 2005), Continuous Comprehensive Education (CCE) and Right to Education (RTE).
According to the meeting, an annotated bibliography in the area of minority education is significant to guide the future research, training and other programmes of the Council. The members of the Minority Cell can take initiative in this regard and the compiled bibliography should be made available on the NCERT website.
There was a stress on the need to share the activities related to the Minority cell through websites.
The reports of all the programmes including the research dissertations taken up by M. Ed and M.Phil/ PhD students must be reflected to all through the websites, the meeting said.
Another recommendation was to have a booklet including the frequently asked questions on minority education to be prepared by the members of the Minority Cell and they should be widely disseminated through various training programmes and the websites.
The meeting also decided that based on the brochure already developed, a video for creating awareness regarding various programmes and schemes related to minority education should be developed by the Minority Cell, NCERT.
The experts from all over the country who attended the meeting include, Prof. Mohd. Faruq Ansari, Prof. Kanan Sadhu,Dr. M.U. Paily, Dr Elizbeth G, Dr. I.B. Chughtai, Dr. Jitender Singh, Dr Flourette G Dkhar, Namgyal Vemphel , Fr. R. M. Majaw, Rev. G.P.L. Gadew, Dr. Fazlur Rahman , Prof. A. Sukumar, and Prof. Anita Julka.