More than 1,200 children drop out of government primary schools in Punjab this year

Ludhiana district tops the chart with the highest number of dropouts at 395, followed by Jalandhar (239) and Bathinda (190)

At least 1,200 children have dropped out of government primary schools in Punjab this year before completing their elementary education, a survey has revealed.

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The door-to-door survey was conducted by the state school education department for tracking down such school children in December to bring them back into the mainstream education.

Ludhiana district topped the chart with the highest number of dropouts at 395, followed by Jalandhar (239), Bathinda (190), Fatehgarh Sahib (105) and Hoshiarpur (103).

The teachers who conducted the survey said most of these children did not take admission in the current academic session to continue their elementary education to join the workforce along with their parents as they come from marginalised sections or belong to migrant families.

A senior education department official said, “The aim of this survey was to find out of school children up to 14 years. The government needs to set up boarding schools with hostels and food facilities for such children to get their studies resumed.”

Amarjeet Singh, district education officer (elementary education), Patiala, said, “Most of the dropouts live in slums. Therefore, we visited such places and motivated the children and their parents to bring them back to schools. Also, teachers even took their class in the slum areas to check their learning level.”

“However, the number of out-of-school children in Punjab declined this time against 3,205 last year as we have already admitted such children at schools,” he added.

When contacted, director public instructions (DPI, elementary education) Lalit Kishore Ghai said, “The director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) is the right person to speak on the matter.”

Also, SCERT director Jagtar Singh refused to comment.