As many as 1,470 children in Mysuru district, who were found to have dropped out of schools during a field survey carried out in December 2013, are still out of school.
Out of the 5,921 children identified as ‘out of school’ during the survey in 2014–15, 3,996 children had been brought to mainstream education. The survey covered children in the age group of 6 to 14.
The remaining children, including 436 studying in a religious educational institution, were yet to make it to schools — though notices had been served to their parents under the Right to Compulsory Education Act, 2009 last year for depriving basic education to their wards, according to a source in the Mysuru office of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
SSA authorities cite parents’ disinclination and migration as the causes for children still remaining out of schools despite the department’s sustained efforts to address the problem.
SSA Deputy Project Coordinator Chandra Patil told The Hindu, “We had learnt that 1,470 children were still out of school when a 10-day appraisal was done in December last. Efforts will be made to bring them back to school in the coming academic year (2015-16).”
A new directive says that the heads of schools were supposed to meet the child and his/her parents if he or she did not turn up for school for seven days. Earlier, school authorities would intervene only if the child remained absent for three months, Mr. Patil explained.
The field survey conducted in 2013 identified sibling care, cattle/sheep grazing and migration as the main reasons for children dropping out of school.
Programmes such as Chinnara Angala, wherein children are taught in residential bridge course centres, had been introduced to address the problem. If parents migrate to other districts for jobs, they can get their children admitted to the schools there. We have communicated about the migrated children to the authorities in districts and requested them to bring them back to mainstream,” Mr. Patil said.
Transfer Certificate (TC) was not mandatory for admission under the Right to Education Act. Therefore, children of migrant families can join other schools without collecting TCs from their previous schools.
