As many as 200 students of Chennai Corporation schools have dropped out during the academic year 2019-2020. Their families have also shifted from the address given to the school authorities, making it difficult to trace the students, and get them back to school.
The students who dropped out are from high schools and higher secondary schools of the Chennai Corporation at 70 locations in the city, according to officials. The Chennai Corporation has started attempting to trace the students. According to data compiled, the students have dropped out from its schools between June and December 2019.
When teams of teachers visited the homes of the students who dropped out, they found that the families of the students had shifted to a new location, making it difficult for the teachers to include their names on the rolls again.
Around 40% of Corporation schools offer better quality education for their students free of cost, registering better results when compared to other private schools in the neighbourhood.
Corporation officials said the schools could be developed only by acquiring additional land in the vicinity or by the resettlement of families in unauthorised constructions. But most of the schools have been located near slums where resettlement could actually reduce the number of students. Many schools have reported a reduction in number of students after resettlement of slums along the Cooum and Adyar rivers.
Schools in the vicinity of more than 50 slums along the Cooum River have already reduced student strength, after the relocation process was started. Some schools have no students at all.
Resettlement of families along Buckingham Canal is expected to reduce the number of students from 85,000 to less than 50,000 in the Corporation schools.
