Maha drive to find drop-outs

MUMBAI: Responding to concerns around drop-outs during the past few months due to Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown, the state education department has launched a drive to identify out of school students across the state from March 1. The department recently released a government resolution (GR) about constitution of state and district-level committees to oversee the drive.

“The drive will be conducted between March 1 and 10, and students between the age group of six to 18 years will be identified and enrolled into schools. The drive will involve surveys at the household level to find out details of students who might have migrated, permanently shifted or remained absent in online classes for a long time. This will also include students who might have enrolled in a school but are not attending online classes as the family has temporarily migrated due to the pandemic,” read the GR.

State education minister Varsha

Gaikwad tweeted about the move on Tuesday saying, “Learning disparities have grown among students during Covid and we are committed to bring more and more students into formal learning to ensure that they do not lose out on studies.”

The education department has also asked officials to find details about absent or untraceable students from NGOS working in the field. NGOS have been asked to create awareness about the move. Similarly, village-level committees have also been constituted to cover more students.

As per a recent survey conducted by Mumbai civic body, over 60,000 students studying in schools across the city are still not able to access online education, 10 months since schools in the city closed. Over 37,000 students in the city have migrated and not come back so far.

Educationists said that retaining students in schools is a bigger challenge. “There need to be constant follow ups from the government to ensure students identified continue studying,” said Vaishali Bafna from SYSCOM, a Pune-based think tank.