KRISHNAGIRI: Regular monitoring at school level and a well-channelled coordination among officials from various departments could help in bringing dropouts back to schools, experts and child rights activists have suggested. They have urged the government to focus on these aspects and devise an executive framework.
After an Out of School Children (OSC) survey, conducted a few months ago, identified a huge number of dropouts, the School Education department launched a pilot project in four districts – Chengalpattu, Krishnagiri, Thiruvallur and Villupuram – to get those children admitted to school.
TNIE spoke to many such students and their parents to understand what forced them to drop out of school. The brother of a 17-year-old girl, who dropped out during the first wave of Covid-19 pandemic after completing class 10, said the girl quit due to lack of interest in studies; poverty too played a part. She has been working in a spinning mill in Coimbatore for over a year now for a monthly salary of Rs 8,000.
A parent, G Basamma of Varadarajapalayam near Denkanikottai, said her daughter was asked to quit studies due to safety concerns. “She had to go to school and return home all alone. Sometimes, it took her till 7 pm to return home. Hence, considering her safety, we pulled her out of school,” she said. The girl completed class 10 in the Government Higher Secondary School at Denkanikottai in Kelamangalam block.
A boy who completed class 10 at a government higher secondary school in Urigam is now assisting his father in farming at Kottayur village in Thalli block. He said he was not interested in studies. A Devaneyan, child rights activist and president of Thozhamai NGO, which is working with the School Education Department to reduce dropout, said if the cause of dropout was poor livelihood, School Education officials would refer government schemes to parents to uplift their livelihood.
The collector would coordinate the affairs. Also, the committee, headed by State Project Director of Samagra Shiksha R Sudhan, will conduct a meeting with the non-governmental organisations who are working with inter-state migrant children this weekend.”
Devaneyan said three children were enrolled in a government school in Tiruvallur district last week. Five more below the age of 14 years from Jawadhu hills in Thiruvannamalai district who are working in Erode, will be rescued in a couple of days. Village-level child protection committee meeting will be organised in all four districts.
Former Krishnagiri district Child Welfare Committee Chairperson L Vincent Sundararaj said, “Dropouts should be identified in the block level. Then, a block-level drive should be taken up in coordination with child protection unit, staff of Revenue and Labour departments, Local Body, Illam Thedi Kalvi volunteers, Anganwadi staff and others to enrol them in schools.”
Tamil Nadu Commission for Protection of Child Rights member V Ramaraj suggested school management committees and six-tier child protection committees at town panchayat, municipality, corporation and village levels be strengthened. They should rope in volunteers to identify dropouts and update the School Education department about the matter.