Ekam Kashoti Notebook Vitaran Babat
Gujarat: Survey to focus on children who dropped out after Class 8
Children of age group 6-18 will be identified and tracked individually using mapping technology. (File photo)
In order to address the issue of high drop-out rate in secondary level, this year’s annual survey by Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has been extended to identify drop-outs till 18 years of age, with focus on children who dropped out after Class 8.
Children of age group 6-18 in areas, including slums, railway stations, religious places, traffic signals, areas around cinema halls, remand homes, women shelter homes, independent organisations, forests and coastal as well as mountain areas, will be identified and tracked individually using mapping technology.
The survey, which earlier used to cover children of age group 6 to 14, is being conducted from February 1 to 28 this time. Awareness would be created among parents of children “never enrolled” through community mobilisation programmes.
P Bharathi, SSA state project director (SPD), told The Indian Express, “To address the high drop-out rate in secondary classes, the survey aims at tracking every child who dropped out after Class 8. We are also trying to find out what these children are currently enganged in.”
While the state has been able to substantially address drop-out rate in primary classes, it is still battling the high drop-out rate in secondary classes, which is worse among girls. In 2018, the education department identified 121 talukas out of total nearly 250 in the state where the total drop-out rate between Class 8 and 9 was more than 20 per cent.
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