Picking slum children from their homes, teaching them with the help of recreational activities inside a moving vehicle and then dropping them back home — the administration of Punjab's Sangrur has hit upon a novel 'school on wheels' project for out of school children, named 'Gyan Kirnan di Choh' (touching the rays of knowledge). As per details, the administration has for the project deployed a yellow schoolbus, which does rounds every day, picking up around 25-30 children from the slums, driving them around and then dropping them back home. A teacher deployed inside the bus imparts basic education to the kids in a fun-activity mode, with two aanganwadi worker too deployed to assist and take care of the children on board. Sangrur Deputy Commissioner, Jitendra Jorwal, said that the bus has a seating arrangement for around 30 children and it has been equipped with various interactive tools — like colouring books, toys, informative charts. He said that the bus also has a mini library inside to help children inculcate a reading habit. To ensure the safety of children, the bus is equipped with a CCTV camera, fire extinguisher, and a first-aid kit. Jorwal said that the initiative has been drafted with the sole aim to bring 'out of school' children back to the mainstream of the society. The "school on wheels" visits pre-identified areas by the administration to educate children with the help of interactive learning techniques. "The initiative kicked off with a slum in Sangrur which was identified after a survey by the local child protection office team. At the slum, we found children who dropped out of school due to different reasons. Now the bus picks them up every morning, for 3-4 hours they spend time with a teacher and are exposed to education. They learn basics and participate in activities, and are then dropped back home. We sometimes also take them outdoor to parks, fish farms etc to give them exposure," said Jorwal. He said that the bus, which has been turned into a moving school, is an approved vehicle under "Safe School Vahan Policy" of the government. "The vehicle has all required documents and permissions, so we can take kids on study tours," he said. "The aim is to improve the learning levels of these children and then make them join mainstream schools. The teacher deputed in the bus is from Padho Punjab Project of the state government. In the coming days, we aim to start 5-6 more buses to cover entire Sangrur," he said.
