CHENNAI: With an increasing number of students from government schools choosing private unaided schools in the state, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is conducting a survey to determine the reasons why parents of government school students are choosing to migrate to private schools.
The study will be conducted in Tiruvannamalai, Salem, Namakkal and Vellore districts. The study focuses on classes 1 to 8 in which Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is aiming to increase enrolment. Officials with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan said that one of the reasons for the increasing enrolment in private unaided schools could be that these districts have historically preferred aided and private schools.
“The state, as a whole, has the largest proportion of students enrolled in government or government aided schools. Of the 1.35 crore students enrolled, only around 40,000 students are enrolled in private unaided schools. With this survey we are trying to get a clearer picture about why parents want to put their children in a private set up,” said Pooja Kulkarni, State Project Director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The survey does not aim to look at schools in major cities like Chennai or Coimbatore, where it is thought that increases in the income levels of parents was the reason for choosing private school education. However, SSA has also called for a study of higher drop-out rates in Chennai and Coimbatore, which officials point out are highly vulnerable to student drop-outs in spite of better infrastructure in terms of more schools and better access.
“Children from slums are vulnerable to drop-out of school. Another reason is the large number of migrant children. We think these factors are responsible for the high drop-out rates in these cities,” says Kulkarni. Statistically, in Chennai, whenever there are major infrastructure projects, drop-out rates rise dramatically. “When work on the metro-rail started, the number of drop-outs shot up. This is largely because children of migrant labourers join schools and then move to other locations. Similarly industrial areas have larger numbers of drop-outs,’ he said.
In 2015, the dropout rate is being estimated at 2,152 students. While the general trend is declining, occasionally the rate shoots up.