37,000 child dropouts in Tamil Nadu in June: Survey

Chennai: A Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) survey finds 37,488 children out of schools throughout the state at the start of this academic year in June with Villupuram district having the highest number of drop outs.

Villupuram district stands first in the state with 2.472 students followed by Coimbatore with 2,203 students and Krishnagiri with 2,073. Chennai district has 1,821 students out of schools.

“Many people here migrate to other districts and states in search of work. When they leave their place they take their children along. After their work, which will last a few months, their children drop out of schools,” SSA officials in the district said.

“Casual labourers who are below poverty line are normally employed in brick kiln chambers in Tiruvallur and other districts and they also migrate to Kerala to fell trees. So, the number of out of school children in the district remains more or less same every year,” he said.

Due to migration of labourers from outside the state, the numbers tend to increase after June and workers for brick kiln chambers arrive from outside the states only in December.

In Chennai district also, the number is slightly high. In Royapuram zone alone, more than 400 children are out of schools. “All the students were enrolled in schools. They dropped out due to the economic background of their families,” an education official of Chennai district said.

“Due to migrant labourers from within the state, Perambur zone also witnessed a slightly high number of child dropouts,” he said. SSA is running 880 non-residential special training centres (NRSTC) and 106 residential centres in the state for reintegrating the out of school children into schools.

The non-residential special training centre in Avadi municipality primary school at Thirumullaivoyal has enrolled 26 poor students. Their abilities are evaluated and they are sent to regular classes after training at the centre.

“Either the children are from poor background or they have some family issues pushing them out of schools. In the centre, we train the children on basic numerical ability and reading and writing skills,” said Ananda Praba, educational volunteer at the centre.

“We conduct the out of school children survey in three spells during April-May, October and January. The dropout numbers vary according to construction activities and other works. Wherever we find children out of schools, we provide them non-residential training,” said Pooja Kulkarni, state project director, SSA.