Haryana: Second survey of school dropouts finds 17,500 kids out of education system

GURUGRAM: A government survey conducted in January this year has found 17,500 children, aged between seven and 14 years, to be out of school. Most of them, officials said, had dropped out during the pandemic.
These students are in addition to the 29,000 children who were found to be out of school during a survey conducted in August last year.
These 17,500 kids would now be brought back to schools after undergoing a six-month training to bridge the gaps in learning caused in the past two years.
The data has been compiled by the education department and the Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojana Parishad (HSPPP), which conducted the survey.
“Last year, the survey was delayed because schools were closed. But this time, we want to roll it out on time. Our resource centres in every district and the education volunteers have been directed to start admitting the newly identified out-of-school children. They would be brought back to the mainstream after a bridge course of 6-7 months,” said J. Ganesan, the director (secondary education).
Apart from the 17,500 out-of-school children who are aged between seven and 14 years, 4,000 kids are in the age group of 5-6 years and were covered as part of the survey. These students will directly be admitted to Class 1 of government schools without any basic training. For 7,500 students in the age group of 15-19, the government is exploring options of open schooling.
“Before the new academic session begins, we have been directed to at least start the process of mainstreaming the students who were found to be out of school. We have identified over 17,500 students in our latest survey. They will need special training before being brought to the mainstream. We are also in the process of enrolling over 4,000 students in the age group of 5-6 years directly into nearby government schools,” said a senior HSSPP official.
In the previous survey that was conducted in August last year, HSSPP had identified over 29,000 out-of-school children.
Of them, more than 25,000 children are being inducted into the mainstream, officials claimed. “We are also in the process of mainstreaming over 25,000 students identified last year. We will get them admitted to schools by March 31. And the ones who were surveyed in January this year will start receiving training from April itself. But we need to get the funds in time,” the official said.
Most of these students are children of migrant labourers who had returned to their villages in the absence of work during the lockdowns.
Those who chose to stay back could not afford smartphones or laptops so that their kids could attend online classes. So, students were pulled out of schools.
Among them is 13-year-old Arpita, who had to drop out of Class 5 in 2020. For two years, she was out of school and was engaged in household chores to help her mother, who works as a domestic staffer in Sector 29. “I wanted to study but I couldn’t get admission because my father didn’t have the documents. They didn’t have smartphones or laptops either. So, I couldn’t have attended classes anyway,” said Arpita, who hopes to resume education soon.
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