The High Court on Monday expressed its dissatisfaction over the implementation of schemes meant to re-enrol school dropouts, stating that officials at the local level were unaware of many of the schemes.
Hearing a suo motu PIL based on media reports on 54,000 dropouts from schools in the State, a division bench headed by Chief Justice D H Waghela observed that there were many Central government schemes to ensure dropouts were enrolled back in school, but lack of awareness about these schemes by local officials had resulted in these schemes not reaching the people.
“Our government does not even know the exact number of children who have dropped out,” the bench observed. Responding to the court’s earlier observation that the State could offer financial incentives to attract children to school, Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar submitted that the State had decided to offer Rs two per day for every girl child of Class 1.
The court, while accepting the submission, stated that such measures would be useful only if children were already attending school. “Give us the information about how many children have dropped out of school and also tell us what measures the government is taking to make sure they come back to school. Take measures so that every child will have an education by the end of this academic year,” the court said.