Technical glitch in app hampers Taalash project
Owing to technical glitch in the app, the project for mapping “out-of-school children (OOSC)” across Jammu and Kashmir has been hampered.
The OOSC programme includes mobile and a web-based app which will help in data collection related to out-of-school children.
The app was launched last year by Project Director Samagra Shiksha J&K, Dr. Arun Manhas. The OOSC programme was aims to enumerate and keep track of OOSC in a timely and quality manner, through intensive data analysis and monitoring.
“TALAASH App is aimed at identifying, tracking, and monitoring out-of-school children (OoSC) of 6 to 18 years of age. The App can be used on smartphones by teachers, Heads of the Institutions (HoIs) and others for mapping/survey” the Project Director had said after launching the Survey.
Official sources associated with the project informed The News Now that the panel of three teachers in each school of JK UT has been out for a survey to identify Out of School Children (OOSC) under ‘Talash Project’ and was asked to upload the data in the app which is now available on Google play store, but the same is seen to have been proved as futile exercise because of the technical fault developed in it, adding, Samagra Shiksha, Department of School Education, Jammu and Kashmir, had re-launched the ‘Talaash’ app on March 28, 2021.
They said that the department has already trained around 30,000 teachers for carrying out the survey through the app. “It will be a mega exercise and the number of OoSC children identified through this survey will be shared on May 31”, they maintained.
The step in this connection was taken to ascertain the circumstances which caused droop out.
Under the Talash Project, the teachers’ panel in every school would make visit at least one hundred and fifty households nearby their schools to identify the Out of School Children (OOSC) and motivate them to move back to school.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Samagra Shikhsa, Velocity Software, and UNICEF teamed up for the app’s development and made it possible within a span of 2-3 months. The ‘Talaash’ app will make the survey process of OOSC children easier and accurate by digital means.
The Union territory has an estimated 27,500 out-of-school children (OOSC), comprising two categories – never enrolled and dropouts.
