5 days ago
Night schools get chance to complete their student enrolment in UDISE portal
Night schools in Maharashtra have been given a fresh opportunity to enrol students in the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE)— the centralised platform for all school-related data—after they were left out due to restrictions in the system, that has stopped any new entry in classes 2 to 12.
Through a letter dated August 11, Maharashtra's Samagra Shiksha allowed schools to manually submit enrolment data for such students using a separate form.
Last year, schools were instructed to link Aadhaar number of students with their UDISE enrolment. As the process has concluded, now the new enrolment entry to UDISE is allowed only for Class 1, assuming that all students studying from Classes 2 to 12 are already in the system.
But this created challenges for schools enrolling out-of-school children who take admission in higher classes, especially night schools that cater to older students returning to education after a long gap.
Sunil Susare, principal of J.C. Bhai Sattha Night School in Ahmednagar and secretary of the Rashtravadi Shikshak Cell, a teachers' association, said, 'Night schools are unique to Maharashtra. They serve students who left formal education years ago and want to return — most without any existing UDISE entry and directly seeking admission to Class 5 or Class 8. If UDISE portal does not allow us to make a new entry for higher classes, their enrolment will not be completed, resulting in wrongfully declaring teachers as surplus, despite having students in the classroom.'
Susare explained that teachers' posts in government-run schools are finalised based on student enrolment number in the UDISE system, making it imperative to complete enrolment of these new students in higher classes, so that teachers' support is continued.
After the association raised the issue with the authorities, all schools having new admissions in Classes 2 to 12, which do not have existing UDISE entry, are now allowed to send such information manually.
