Activists contest State's survey on school dropouts

The State has claimed that 1.70 lakh children, between the ages of 6 and 14, were out of school in 2013-14, citing the latest Out of School Children (OOSC) Survey released by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.  

The State’s Education Department had, however, said that only 51,994 children were school dropouts before the actual survey. 

However, social activists, have now contested even the latest figures put out by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan survey. Citing a pilot survey carried out in Yadgir by Don Bosco Centre for Social Action, since 2011 and updated in 2013, social activists have asserted that according to the data collated from only eight villages in the district, there were as many as 900 out of school children.  

The OOSC survey report, released by the State Education department, on the other hand, stated that there were 11,197 school dropouts in the entire district with several hundred villages. The Bosco survey has been provided to SSA for comparison and tallying. “The district office at Yadgir has been asked to send specific data on eight villages for comparison in order to get clarity,” an official source said.

The difference in figures, the official observed, might be due to different methodologies employed by the two surveys. While the OOSC survey has gathered details from households as well as school records,  Bosco survey has collected details only from households. Of the 11,197 school dropouts, the household survey found 6,177 children dropped out during this period and 729 children had never enrolled in schools. The school survey found 4,291 children had dropped out.  

The SSA survey has been carried out by taking into account rural, urban, vulnerable and non-vulnerable clusters. Accordingly, Yadgir has been classified into 53 rural vulnerable and nine urban vulnerable clusters. The Bosco survey, on the other hand, followed criteria such as migragation status, school distance et al. The SSA survey was carried out by education department officials along with the help of NGOs. The Bosco survey was carried out by its staff with help of villagers.