The Election Commission of India yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Ministry of Education to bring electoral literacy into classrooms across the country. The MoU outlines the development of institutional framework that seeks to embed electoral literacy in schools and colleges. It also includes structured curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities that will help prepare new voters for greater electoral participation in democracy.
Key features of the MoU include systematic inclusion of voter education and electoral literacy in the curriculum from classes 6th to 12th in all schools.
Under the MoU, NCERT will include material on electoral literacy in school textbooks and advise state education boards to follow the same. Various activities will be held to promote voter awareness among students, ensuring their registration and participation as voters. A robust mechanism will be developed to meet ECI’s ambitious target of handing over Voter ID card to every student who attains the age of 18 years. The MoU also aims to expand ECI’s flagship systematic voter education and electoral participation in schools and colleges. Its objective is to encourage universal and enlightened participation of prospective voters in elections.
