Telangana to bring down school dropout rate

​Hyderabad: Telangana State Education Department has come up with a four-tier comprehensive plan under Sarva Sikha Abhiyan (SSA) to deal with the increasing number of school dropout rates in the State.

According to School Education Department officials, a survey conducted for 2016-17 academic year has identified 14,739 students who dropped out from upper primary and high school level in various districts of the State.

Out of the total number of dropout students about 7,747 are boys and 7,092 are girls. The numbers of the survey are not very high. But, bringing back students to the school remained a herculean task as the children live under different circumstances, the officials pointed out.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior official from the school education department said that in majority of cases of school dropouts among boys was that they had to go to work to provide additional income to their families.

Similarly, among the girls drop outs, some are going to agriculture works along with their parents, in particularly to work in cotton fields. In case of other, distance of school and child marriage is contributing to dropout at upper primary and high school studies, he added.

In addition to this, work related migration of parents from one place to another factor that plays a hindrance in bringing them back to school.

And, the SSA norms mandate to provide Special Training in Non-Residential (STNR) Mode to children in the age group of 10 to 14 years and for those who are away from school for more than a year.

It was against this backdrop that the State government has come with a four-tier plan starting Non-Residential Special Training Centres (NRSTCs), Seasonal Hotels (SHs), Work Site Hotels (WSHs), Summer camps in KGBVs and Urban Residential Schools and Hotels (URSHs) to address different issues contributing to school dropouts.

Accordingly, 22 NRSTCs are run across the State for a period of six months with special volunteers to impart education appropriate to their age and to mainstream the school dropout children, the sources said.

Similarly, children left behind at home by parents during seasonal migration for work from one district to another are admitted at Seasonal Hostels (SHs) in Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar, Jogulamba, Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool, Nalgonda and Mahabubabad. Children will have boarding and lodging facilities to regularly attend the schools.

Further, for migrant children who come along with their parents from Odisha to work in brick kilns during November and go back around June every year, inter-state migrated children WSHs have been started in association with NGOs at Peddapalli, Karimnagar, Jagithyal, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Nizamabad, Kamareddy and Vikarabad, the officials said. Special volunteers are appointed to teach the children in their own language, they added.

Also, summer camps in selected KGBVs are organised to provide age and class appropriate education and teach every enrolled girl child. In urban areas like Hyderabad URSHs are run for ‘Children without Adult Protection’ (CWAP) to provide education and hostels for orphans, rag-pickers, beggars and children of broken families and the like.