State education department to provide special assistance to drop outs

The state education department will be conducting a six-month long academic support programme for out-of-school children to bring them up to the age-appropriate

The state education department will be conducting a six-month long academic support programme for out-of-school children to bring them up to the age-appropriate standards of mainstream schools. The programme will cover children of migrant labourers who do not attend school, those who had to drop out of school or discontinue studies, thereby leading to a learning gap, and those who have no access to formal education.

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Earlier, in January this year, the department had conducted a survey to identity such out-of-school children. However, following the Covid-19 lockdown and pandemic restrictions, a fresh survey was conducted last month.

Sangeeta Chaudhary, district project coordinator, said that as per the survey conducted in January, around 4,000 such children were identified for the academic assistance programme. The second survey that was conducted last month threw up similar figures with roughly 3,500 students being identified.

“Due to the pandemic restrictions and lockdown, our plans got delayed. Since there had been a lot of movement of migrant population during the lockdown, we decided to hold a fresh survey last month. The new numbers are nearly similar as the past figures,” said Chaudhary. She said the department had approved a budget for 4,000 students in the Gurugram district who would be taught for a period of six months till they achieve competency levels that will enable them to get admitted to schools.

“These students will be taught to achieve a level of competency expected from a school student. Once the academic support training is completed, we will get the students admitted in various government schools,” said Chaudhary

The academic support programme will be conducted at various centres that will be established in identified locations. Each centre will have a student strength ranging between 25-50 depending on the number of students identified that area.

The state education department will be appointing education volunteers in different localities to train these children before they can resume classes. “We will be putting out notices seeking applications for education volunteers this week. These volunteers are hired on a fixed monthly remuneration. They will be trained before they start teaching the students in centres that will be established across the district,” said Chaudhary.