Schools bring missing kids back to classroom

Govt campaign brings over 3.87 lakh children to classrooms after reopening of schools post-pandemic, reports Mukesh Ranjan
Umesh Kumar (below) was among the 3.8 lakh children brought back to school
Umesh Kumar (below) was among the 3.8 lakh children brought back to school

JHARKHAND: Umesh Kumar doesn’t even remember which class he was in when schools were shut across India in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020. When the schools in Jharkhand reopened for physical classes this March after a gap of two years, he was blissfully unaware of it, holidaying at his maternal grandparents’ house. As he failed to turn up even after a month, the school authorities finally went to his house last month to track him and brought him back to the classroom.

Umesh is now happy to attend classes and interact with teachers and friends. “Some people from the school visited our house and asked my parents about my whereabouts. When informed that I was at my maternal grandparents’ home, they asked my parents to call me back and enrolled me in Bariatu Middle School. Now, I attend my classes regularly and it is really fun to come here,” he said.

Like Umesh, thousands of children had completely stopped attending online classes during the pandemic due to lack of resources and were missing out on education. A huge number of them were missing from the schools even after classes resumed two months ago. To bring back all such children to classes, the state government launched a ‘Back to School’ campaign and it has been a big success.

“The campaign has succeeded in bringing back over 3.87 lakh students to the nearest schools in their locality or villages across the state Jharkhand,” said Project Director, Jharkhand Education Project Council, Kiran Kumari Pasi. The campaign was rolled out in nearly 30,000 state-owned primary, middle and secondary schools with fun-filled activities lined up for ‘No-Bag Day’, she added.

The campaign, launched on April 4, also aimed to ensure the enrolment of dropouts, non-resident and un-enrolled kids and children with special needs of 5-18 years age group, besides eying 100 per cent attendance in schools.“Bringing back children belonging to classes 1 to 5 was the biggest challenge,” said State Programme Officer, JEPC, Mamta Lakra.

The authorities had to work hard to make the parents aware of how staying away from school was resulting in learning loss for their children. Before he rejoined school, Umesh could not even tell how many months he’d been away from school or how many months there were in a year. Naseem Ahmed, principal of his school, said Umesh was admitted to class 2, and after an assessment of his mental level, he will be promoted. “As many as 58 children of my school have been brought back through the campaign,” Ahmed said.

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