Udupi district boasts of lowest number of school dropouts

The Udupi district can boast of having lowest number of school dropouts when compared to other districts in the State.

The total number of school dropouts  in the age group of six to 14  in the State is 2,70,000. There are only 174 children in the district who have remained out of the portals of the school in the district.

Udupi DDPI Nagendra Madhyastha told Deccan Herald that the door-to-door survey conducted by the department has confirmed that only 174 students have remained out of the school. The department will take up measures to convince them and their parents to bring them back to the portal of the school.

The students will be given pre-learning facilities in order to improve their learning capabilities and are admitted to the classes following their age.

SSA Co-ordinator P Nagaraj said as per the initial survey, a total of 2,886 children were taken into account as school dropouts as they had not collected transfer certificates from the school before leaving the school.

“During the survey, we found that only 997 children yet to join the school, of which, 131 children were above 14 years and 52 names were repeated in the survey list.  Out of the remaining 814 children, 439 were migrant labourers children, who have left the district along with their parents in search of employment. In the remaining 375 children, 199 children have been traced out in five educational zones and are given three months course under ‘Chinnara Angala’ special training to make them adaptable to the present day education system, when they are enrolled to schools following the criteria of the age. Out of the remaining 176 children, two children have died and the remaining 174  are in the district,” he said.

He said that the department is making efforts to track them and enrol them back to the school. He said as per the available information, 70 children are attending Madrasa classes, the religious and spiritual tutorial classes of Muslim community. Besides, 12 are physically disabled, 35 are affected with minor physical disability. The department is planning to conduct special classes for these disabled kids by setting up school preparedness centers in the five educational zones.

The survey will be taken up once again in December and January, 2015. According to the survey conducted in 2013, there were 123 school dropouts. About 22,951 children have taken the transfer certificates and have left the school during 2012 to 2014.