Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, January 28:
The children in the Residential Bridgecourse Education Centres (RBC) run by voluntary agencies under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Manipur State Mission are facing starvation due to lack of coordination among concerned officials, said a press release issued by Manipur SSA Partner NGOs' Federation (MSSAPNGOF).
The voluntary agencies running the RBC centres are facing acute financial hardship in terms of providing foods, teachinglearning materials and payment of honorarium to education volunteers due to lack of coordination among State SSA office, DBEs and Block Resources officer.
Even as the SSA State Mission Authority issued administrative order to the concern District Board of Education on December 26 last year for prompt release of the grant-in-aid funds for further implementation of RBCs and NRBCs.
But the direction has been kept in abeyance till date denying the children accessibility to the funds meant for them, asserted the release.
The SSA is a time bound national programme in which the State Mission Authority ought to bring all school drop out children back to schools by 2007, thereby uplifting the State literacy status to such a level that there is no citizen of Manipur whose literacy level is below class VIII by 2010, it said.
The release further attributed the inordinate delay in fund delivery to red-tapism while accusing the concerned officials for the lack of cooperation among them.