GUNTUR: Palnadu district administration has identified as many as 30,000 school dropouts and out-of-school children. The officials concerned are gearing up to take necessary action to send them back to schools. A survey ‘Badi-Bata’ is being conducted to identify the out-of-school and school dropouts in the district. The education department officials have already conducted a training session for cluster resource persons and part-time instructors to conduct the door-to-door survey.
In 2021, as many as 11,968 out-of-school children aged below 18 years were identified in the erstwhile Guntur district. Of them, 5,223 were below 14. Along with the survey, they also conducted awareness campaigns to educate their parents on the importance of education and encouraged them to send their children to school. As a result, 8,631 students were readmitted to the schools.
It was also found that many children are dropping out of school to help their parents in agricultural activities.Speaking to TNIE, District Collector M Sivashankar said that the district has 30,000 dropouts. He instructed the officials to take necessary action to admit them in schools in the next three months. He also spoke to a few parents of dropouts and explained to them the importance of education.
The Collector urged them to send their children to schools and provide them with education to lead a better life.
The officials also instructed the resource persons to stress on prevention of child marriages through the programme. Mahila police along with Anganwadi members will collect the details of the girls in villages and form a group.
AWARENESS DRIVE
Awareness programmes on women and child rights and women’s safety will be conducted every week. Along with this, the officials are also planning to provide skill training to girls, the Collector said