Odisha Government Chalked Out Strategies To Bring Back Drop Out Students
Bhubaneswar, May 14: Concerned over high number of students not attending the school, Odisha government has chalked out a strategy to bring drop out students to mainstream.
School and Mass Education Secretary Bishunupada Sethi in a letter on Friday asked all District Collectors to conduct a micro level survey at the school level to list out the students who are not coming to school.
Sethi in his letter said the Junior teachers in the school be sent to the houses of the absentee students to know the Reason of their absence from the school and motivate them and their parents to send their ward to school and to explain the benefit of sending the students to school and steps taken by the government to provide free books, uniforms, Mid day meal and scholarships.
If needed the help of PRI, women Self help groups, School management Committee, School Management and Development Committee, be taken for the purpose. Sethi said two years of academic activities was lost due to covid. After normalcy returned steps were taken by the government to reopen the schools and at present classes are being held from 6 AM TO 9 AM due to heat wave. But on the analysis of daily attendance it is seen that only 70 per cent of the students are attending the classes.
It is seen that the attendance in class 1 to V in case of districts like Malkangiri, Boudh, Gajapati, Sambalpur,, Nuapada is less than the state average. In case of attendance for Class VI to class VIII, the performance of districts like Malkangiri, Boudh, Sambalpur, Nuapada is also less than the state average.
In secondary wing, the performance of Gajapati, Bolangir, Baragarha, Sonepur, Nuapada, Cuttack, Khordha, Koraput,Ganjam, Boudh, Malkangiri, keonjhar, Sambalpur, is less than the state average.
The overall attendance in Higher secondary level is abysmally low in Gajapati, Sonepur, Baragarha, Kandhamal and Nuapada which is a matter of concern.
He said the figure made us to believe that the students might have dropped out, moved out along with their parents, lost interest in study due to non continuance of teaching schedule due to pandemic and other reasons which need analysis. Sethi said many students passing out from Class VIII are not taking admission in class IX.
Special care need to be taken to get them admitted at secondary level in nearby school. Location specific strategies be devised to bring back the students to the class room, he said.
