A total of 46.89 per cent of students could not attend school due to Covid, according to a recent survey by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
The survey also highlighted that 2,457 students have been reported to be out of school within the PMC limits.
Suresh Jagtap, additional commissioner with the PMC said 3,05,898 households were surveyed in the PMC limits.
“There are 2,457 students who are out of school between the ages of three to 18 years in the PMC limits. Of this, 1,152 students have been out of school due to the ongoing pandemic,” said Jagtap.
He added that PMC will continue its efforts to include these students in the upcoming academic year.
“We will trace and admit them in the upcoming academic year. The schools are shut till March 31. We will be following the plans chalked out by the state government to include these children back in the education system,” said Jagtap.
Mukund Kirdat, an education activist as well as a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that it is unfortunate that these students inside the PMC limits could not receive formal education last year.
“These families of these students have reported financial difficulties. Not just middle-class parents, but single parents who are daily wage workers and domestic helpers do not have the money to continue the education of their ward. There are also parents who are single, financial difficulties have been a challenge for them as well. In such cases, the authorities have failed to include these children in the system. There has been no system where these students are included. The sad part is that these students are in the city and have not migrated out of here and the authorities have failed immensely,” said Kirdat.
{{/usCountry}}“These families of these students have reported financial difficulties. Not just middle-class parents, but single parents who are daily wage workers and domestic helpers do not have the money to continue the education of their ward. There are also parents who are single, financial difficulties have been a challenge for them as well. In such cases, the authorities have failed to include these children in the system. There has been no system where these students are included. The sad part is that these students are in the city and have not migrated out of here and the authorities have failed immensely,” said Kirdat.
{{/usCountry}}Of the 2,457 students, only 153 have migrated out of the city. There are 174 students whose parents have financial problems due to which they are out of school and there are 21 children who are out of school as they have single parents.
“The authorities should plan the upcoming academic year in a better way so that those parents seeking admissions now are able to continue the education of their child,” said Kirdat.
Box
Header: Why are they out of school?
*Due to Covid-19-- 1,152
*Parents who think education is not important--536
*Parents with financial problem--174
*Migration--153
*Child does not like education--139
*Specially abled children--109
*Family problems--92
*Younger siblings to take care of--22
*Single parents--21
*Do not have documents for admission--18
*Language problems--18
*No response--11
*School is far away from home--7
*Child labour--5
*Total --2457
*Source: PMC