DCPCR: New system helped 55,000 kids resume school
Officials said that the attendance of enrolled students is updated daily through an online portal by the schools. If a student seems to have skipped school for around a week, DCPCR officials or volunteer groups contact the family to understand why the student has been skipping school.
The Early Warning System (EWS), a tech-based project of the Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has helped more than 55,000 students resume education in Delhi’s public schools in the last year, according to officials of the child rights body.
Officials from DCPCR said that currently, the system tracks 1,900,000 students from 1,040 schools in Delhi, including some private schools. It uses the students’ attendance as a key indicator and leverages technology in predicting students’ adversity and enabling timely remedial interventions.
The information was given by DCPCR during an event on International Street Children’s Day on April 12, nearly a year after the EWS was launched in March 2022. Officials said that in most cases, the student did not officially drop out, but was chronically absent from school.
“We are running several programmes for street children to ensure that they can attain education and are eventually lifted to better living conditions. The aim of the EWS is to switch from reactive governance to proactive governance. The project’s fundamental idea is based on the understanding that a substantially low school attendance of a student is a circumstantial ramification of their vulnerable socio-economic realities. If unresolved, these vulnerabilities lead to them dropping out of school, which we try to address at the earliest,” said Nidhi Dwivedi, member, DCPCR, during an event organised by Childhood Enhancement Through Training and Action (CHETNA) an NGO which facilitates street children who have braved odds to stay in school.
Dwivedi added that through this system, the department has successfully connected with 96,000 children to understand the reasons behind their absenteeism and undertake initiatives to resolve their grievances and reduce dropout rates.
Officials said that the attendance of enrolled students is updated daily through an online portal by the schools. If a student seems to have skipped school for around a week, DCPCR officials or volunteer groups contact the family to understand why the student has been skipping school. The students and families are then assisted so that their problems are addressed.
“In one instance a girl stopped going to school as all her classmates were boys and she was the only female student. We intervened and got some more girls enrolled in that school, which ensured that she did not drop out and also added more students. In another case, the child was under stress because they were not getting Anganwadi supplies. This was resolved after a phone call. All possible efforts are undertaken to bring each child back to school,” added Dwivedi.
Some of the major reasons for students dropping out include sickness, families migrating to other states, children getting affected by drug abuse and avoiding school, financial pressures pushing them to take up jobs, abuse or bullying faced at school, and family problems. There are other issues that are specific and can be addressed with minor interventions, according to officials.
To further help such children, the DCPCR also has a 24-hour helpline number 9311551393 that attends to SOS calls. Additionally, the department helps children with financial aid, sponsorships, and other needs.
Experts said that to enhance efforts to add more children to formal schooling, further efforts are required to conduct a census of street children in Delhi. “We estimate that there are about five lakh street children in Delhi living across various slums. However, there is no formal census yet. There is a need for a formal census so that more such children can be identified and brought to school and given aid in whatever way possible so that can contribute to the development of the country,” said Sanjay Gupta, director, CHETNA.