KOCHI: A survey by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) here which was conducted jointly with the local bodies and government found 107 children belonging to migrant workers had not been enrolled in schools. The month-long survey was carried out among inhabitants of migrant labour camps, mainly those in Perumbavoor municipality.
The SSA also got these 107 students enrolled in government schools subsequently through a school pravesanolsavam held at Perumbavoor the other day.“We are making all efforts to ensure migrant children become part of the mainstream education system. Through these efforts, we are trying to get maximum number of migrant students enrolled in government schools. The survey will continue in the coming days as well to include more children,” said Sajoe George, district project officer, SSA.
“With the enrolment of 107 children enrolled in school a few days ago the total number of migrant students in the district has gone up to 2,648,” he said.
The SSA is also providing school uniform, schoolbag and other study material free of cost to attract migrant workers’ children to schools.
“Besides, we have appointed educational volunteers in each school for the migrant children. These volunteers will work for the betterment of migrant children. We are also planning to launch region-specific education module to draw the children to these study centres,” Vijayakumar P K, district programme officer.
Training centres
The SSA is planning to extend the special training centres to other schools. “The government has set aside D52 lakh exclusively to provide special training for migrants’ students. We have identified some schools for the purpose,” Sajoe said.
Dropout rate sparks concern
The growing number of migrant workers’ children who drop out of schools has emerged as a major concern for the Sarva Siskha Abhiyan(SSA). This has been attributed to the migrant workers shifting from place to place in search of work thereby forcing the kids to give up on education.“Since a majority of migrant workers wander about in search of work, the children do not get the chance to finish school. This is a major issue confronting us since we are unable to stop them from dropping out of schools,” said an SSA officer.