The central government has suggested 10 bagless days for sixth and eighth-grade students under the New Education Policy (NEP), but the feasibility of the project is being widely debated.
The Bhupendra Patel-led government, which approved the concept in a cabinet meeting, has allotted just Rs 2 crore to implement the programme across 1500 schools.
Essentially, each school will have to implement this programme with a frugal budget of Rs 15,000 for roughly 300 students. The expenditure per student comes to approximately 0.075 paise, which doesn’t even take care of the basic expenditures incurred by schools.
While the NEP is laudable, questions are naturally being raised over the seriousness of the programme, given that the budget is hardly enough to bring about sweeping changes in the educational system.
As of now, the implementation of 10 bagless days will start as an experiment in the first week of January 2023 in 491 upper primary schools of the state. By the end of January, the programme will be extended to 1009 upper primary schools.
The state government spokesperson and sports minister Hrishikesh Patel has said that educational institutes have been asked to organise meetings with local artisans and folk artists and hold workshops on horticulture, pottery and metal making along with sporting events and national festival celebrations.
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