TN to conduct survey to identify school dropouts in city

Accordingly, the School Education Department, Social Welfare Department, Labour Department, and Police Department are planning to work together to conduct a door-to-door survey.

According to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, all children between ages 6 and 14 must get education.

A senior official from the Directorate of School Education said that the government has taken special interventions to enrol out-of-school children, which reduced the dropout rate considerably over the last seven years.

“Along with the survey, enrolment awareness programme and door-to-door campaigns will be conducted across the city to increase the admissions in the government schools,” the official said. He added that the survey would also be conducted in bus stands, railway stations, market places, temples and in slum areas to find suitable students.

The team members, deployed for the survey, will visit all houses in their respective areas and will enquire the residents in the locality about the educational background of all the members in the family.

Stating that the measure to provide education to children should first begin from the parents, the official said that schools too play an important role in identifying dropouts because of the students’ long absence.

“The team will also identify children with special needs so that they too can be either enrolled in schools or offered home-based education,” the official said.

He pointed out that in Chennai there are state resources centre where children with special needs would benefited from special education and therapy sessions held according to their disabilities.