Special Drive To Enrol Dropouts In Seema As Thousands Still Remain Out Of School

More than 75,000 children are still reported to be on the school dropout list in Rayalaseema, with Kurnool, Nandyal, and Kadapa districts accounting for a significant share.

Across Andhra Pradesh, 4,91,137 students have been identified as dropouts, though School Education officials claim they have enrolled 4,90,908 of them through the special drive. According to them, only 229 cases of enrolment are pending. Teachers, however, observe that official figures do not reflect the situation on the ground.

In Kurnool district, more than 22,000 children had been listed as dropouts. Kurnool district Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan project director Dr. N.B. Lokaraju said the department had verified data before launching its dropout enrolment drive.

“We have enrolled as many as 41,144 children in schools,” he asserted.

In Kadapa district, 27,200 children are still reported to be out of school, while the figure for Nandyal district is around 21,000.

Teachers say departments concerned should ascertain whether children have discontinued school, had shifted to other schools, or migrated with their families.

Several parents said officials did not contact them during the dropout verification exercise. “We had gone to Guntur to work as agricultural labour and took our children along. They accompany us to the fields. No official has contacted us so far,” said M. Mukundamma of Kosigi in Kurnool district.

In another case, S. Ismail of Nabikot in Kadapa town said he admitted his son to a private school in LKG. He later wanted to shift him to the local MPP government school. However, the private school management has allegedly refused to issue a transfer certificate. “My son is neither attending the private school nor studying in a government school,” Ismail maintained.

Teachers pointed to instances, where students are unable to secure admission despite their parents wanting to enrol them. In Kamalapuram mandal, a family requested the Pragathi School to admit their child in primary school. The management allegedly refused citing pending fee dues.

“If children who want to join schools are not being admitted, how can the department claim that 99 per cent of dropout children have been enrolled,” teachers asked. They demanded restoration of the system of directly admitting children into Class I.

Kadapa district education officer S. Shamsuddin said the dropout list is currently with the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan. “The list will be provided to us along with logins. Based on that, we will know how many cases are pending and how many students have been enrolled,” he said.

Teachers say accurate identification and continuous tracking of students who leave school is essential to prevent children from dropping out of the education system.

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Following are top 10 districts in AP with the highest number of children out of school

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District – Children

Kurnool – 40,140

SPS Nellore – 25,829

YSR Kadapa – 24,195

Sri Satyasai – 23,866

Ananthapur – 23,297

Chittoor – 21,844

Palnadu – 21,342

Nandyal – 19,129

Prakasam – 19,120

Tirupati – 22,195