Who will read Vanchshe Gujarat? 83,000 children out of school

It seems the state government is ensuring that its assurance of achieving almost zero percent drop-out rate does not fall flat. In an exercise carried out by the state education department under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Mission, it was found that as there are as many as 83,855 children, who have either dropped out of or never enrolled in schools.

Surprisingly, nearly 70 children were found at the state education policymakers' offices in the state secretariat.

The SSA is claiming that all of these children, who now have been enrolled in the need-based Special Training Program (STPs), will be admitted in the regular schools after completion of their STPs. "These out-of-school children have been enrolled for the STPs, of 3-12 months' duration. The courses will be conducted by 'Bal Mitra', qualified teachers who have undergone Primary Teachers Certificate course, and will take students according to their ages. The survey was conducted by non-government organisations in different parts of the state," said Manoj Agrawal, mission director, SSA.

He further said, "Most of these children have been found at construction sites, saltpan works and brick kilns, which employ labourers who have migrated here from other parts of the country and other districts of the state. We provide tent schools, rented houses as well as local area school's building for running the STP classes. These children are also provided benefits of Mid-Day Meal scheme."

As the migrated labourers come from other states as well, the children are also provided study material in their languages. "Labourers come to Gujarat from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Odisha etc. So we are providing study material in Hindi, Marathi and Oriya languages to these children," said Agrawal.

According to the survey there are total 30,623 students in Ahmedabad district only, who are out of school. Of these 6047 dropped out of school because of socio-economic reasons while 24,576 students had never enrolled in schools.

Agrawal adds that Gujarat is the first state in the country to start a helpline and online registration for children who drop out of school. Those who find street children, likely to be out of school, can call on 18002337965 or provide information on www.ssagujarat.org.