BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to keep track of students dropping out and make efforts to bring them back to school, the School and Mass Education (SME) department has directed its field staff to conduct home visits for those who remain absent from classes for a week or more at the elementary level.
In a recent order, the Directorate of Elementary Education under the SME department instructed all district education officers and block education officers to ensure that school authorities visit the homes of students at the primary and upper primary levels to ascertain the reasons for their prolonged absence. Headmasters and teachers as well as members of the school management committees will be involved in the drive.
“The Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (OSCPCR) issued an advisory to the district collectors last month to address concerns of potential consequences of long absence of students from school, especially dropouts at an early stage. The Commission has called for direct interaction with parents and guardians to help identify and address the socio-economic, migration and other similar challenges faced by the dropouts, and initiate measure for their retention in the schools,” an official said.
High dropout among students at school-level has been a major concern for the state. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had flagged concerns on the issue last month stating that the dropout rate among students across Class II and Class XII in Odisha ranged from 3.12 per cent and 7.26 per cent between 2018 and 2023.
The report had also underlined that a staggering 61,487 children aged between six and 18 years could not be brought back into the formal education system in the state during 2018-23.
Apart from dropout concerns, officials said, individual visit will help identify whether the child has been engaged in labour or other economic activities, enabling timely intervention from the Labour department.
Prolonged absence of adolescent children, particularly girls, may even indicate their vulnerability to early marriage and a home visit will help in timely counselling of families against the same, they said.