A total of 402 children of migrant workers, now employed in Coimbatore district, have been enrolled in government schools here as part of a State Government initiative to solve the problem of drop outs.
The initiative would provide these children an opportunity to study in their mother tongue. Till now, they only had the option of studying in Tamil medium in Government schools here.
A survey conducted by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) identified native speakers of 10 different languages, including Nepali.
This exercise was taken up pursuant to a scheme announced by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the Assembly on May 15 to start classes in the mother tongues of children of migrants. A sum of Rs 4.30 crore was allotted for this scheme and the children thus identified would be enrolled in schools functioning in the vicinity of their parent’s work sites.
District Educational Elementary Education Officer (DEEO) T. Ganeshamoorthy told The Hindu here on Saturday that all the children identified have been enrolled in panchayat union schools. Efforts to enrol more children were continuing to ensure none was left out.
All the children were in the age group of 6 to 14 and have been admitted to classes between I and VIII based on their age. A report would be sent to the Department, which in turn would contact the respective States to provide educational material for these children.
Once the materials arrived, teachers, conversant in these languages would be recruited and posted in these schools.
Till such time the educational material arrived, students would continue to be taught subjects such as English, value education and health education under the common syllabus. They would also be involved in co-curricular activities. With the scheme being new, many of the guidelines were still under formulation.
Mr. Ganeshamoorthy said that a group of 21 children of migrants speaking Assamese were admitted in the Dhaliyur Panchayat Union School in Thondamuthur Block on Wednesday as part of this scheme.
