KRISHNAGIRI: The School Education department is implementing a pilot project in four districts to bring students who dropped out back to schools. Through focussed intervention and door-to-door surveys, which started last week, officials are reaching out to students directly.
A whopping 1,01,830 students have been identified as Out of School Children (OSC) across Chengalpattu, Krishnagiri, Thiruvallur and Villupuram districts. Of them, 28,774 were admitted back in schools, while 8,642 are awaiting admission. Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan State Project Director (SPD) R Sudhan directed the Education department to conduct the survey.
According to Chief Education Officer (CEO) KP Maheshwari, 20,173 students were identified as OSC in Krishnagiri district in a survey conducted using Educational Management Information System (EMIS) data in June and July. Of them, 7,508 were admitted back in schools and 202 are awaiting admission.
Maheshwari further said, among the four education districts in Krishnagiri, the highest dropout rate was reported from Denkanikottai due to high prevalence of child marriage. The number of children with compulsion to earn stood at 272, the highest among the four districts; those who had migrated to other States stood at 5,131; and those who migrated to other districts stood at 529.
“The figures are changing,” she said, adding, “For instance, 100 children who migrated to other districts were enrolled this week. This came to light during the survey.”Further, Maheshwari flagged a few issues in the EMIS portal. “We detected double-entry of students’ details in the database. For instance, when a student from a private school was enrolled in a government school, his details were recorded in both the private and the government schools,” she explained. The number of dropouts is likely to decline once the project is completed, she added.
Krishnagiri Collector V Jaya Chandra Bhanu Reddy said, though 123 teams had been formed to reduce the number of dropouts, the accuracy of the data collected by them was questionable. The next course of action would be taken once the fresh data arrived, he said. Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan State Project Director (SPD) R Sudhan was not available for comments.
Across the State, 1,40,000 children were waiting to be admitted to schools this academic year, according to a School Education Department survey conducted a few months ago.