Concerned about the rising rate of school drop outs in the State, the Education Department of Uttarakhand Government has decided to take help from the non governmental organisations and social workers to address the issue.
The Director General of School Education, Captain Alok Shekhar Tiwari said the school dropouts would be again enrolled in the schools so that they are able to complete their studies.
He said all the Chief Education Officers (CEO), District Education Officers (DEO) and Block Education Officers (BEO) have been directed to focus on school dropouts. They have also been asked to take the help of NGOs and social workers in this task, he added.
Official sources said the number of students leaving schools was higher in schools located in mountainous and remote areas. In recent years, the dropout rate has increased in districts like Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar.
Apart from identifying these dropout children the Education department would undertake their counselling and try to put them back to the schools. The Department would also try to find the reason for the dropout and devise a strategy to counter the problem.
It is a common knowledge that the Education department is presently under scanner due to the decrease in number of the students in Government schools. Various data suggests that private schools are fast catching up with the Government schools even in rural areas notwithstanding the fact that the State Government has doubled the budget on education since 2009. The schools located in the remote and mountainous parts of the State are worst affected and hundreds of them on brink of closure due to absence of enrolments.
The departmental data further revealed that there about 1910 schools in the State where less than ten students are enrolled. These schools pose a big financial burden on the Education department. Experts believed that by closing these schools the department would get relieved of a major burden.
Plan is afoot to open residential schools in selected areas. The data further revealed that there are 1969 such schools where number of students is more than 10 but less than 20. Similarly the number of schools with more than 20 but less than 30 students is 1480.