Bengaluru South has the highest number of students out of school, according to a survey conducted by the Department of Primary Education. Kalaburagi and Yadgir are the other districts with a high number of out-of-school students.
“These districts have the highest number of dropouts as the parents move to or out of these districts in search of work,” said an official in the Education Department.
Migration and disinterest in studies were found to be among the top reasons for children dropping out of school, along with domestic work, illness of the child, distance to the school, and neglect shown towards the girl child’s education.
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A total of 70,116 students across the State were identified as Out of School Children (OOSC), up from 14,192 identified the previous academic year. While 39,059 are boys, the number of girls is 31,054. Three are transgenders. Officials attributed the huge increase to tweaking the parameters of the survey this year.
The survey was conducted across the State between November 14 and November 30, 2018. It takes into account students below the age of 14 every year, but this year, the government decided to include students who have not completed class 10 as dropouts.
Officials also said that the survey was more “robust” this time around as it involved more community participation at the gram panchayat level.
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This year, the data of children not in school has been captured from the Student Achievement Tracking System, which is the department’s database. While earlier, only data of missing children from government schools was considered, this year, even details of private schools have been taken.
However, the department in a press release, has said that many private schools have not filled up the necessary details and have been told to do so at the earliest.