School drop-out rate brought down

Ahmedabad, June 20 : Gujarat claims to have brought down the drop-out rate in primary schools (Standard I-V) from 35.31 per cent in 1997-98 to 5.13 per cent in 2005-06, thanks to a massive enrollment drive launched by the government five years back.

The entire council of ministers, led by Chief Minister, senior IAS and IPS officers, besides education department officials Narendra Modi, cover all the 18,500 villages for three days at the beginning of the academic session.

Eligible children in colourful attire are taken round the village in decorated trucks, tractors, camel or bullock carts, before they receive warm welcome from their parents, teachers, sarpanch, village elders, local legislators and designated officers at the school gate.

This year, 3,000 officials covered each and every village in the state and enrolled 5,93,863 children, including in Std-I amidst fanfare during the drive, aptly called 'Shala Praveshotsava'.

In all, 5,93,863 children - including 3,10,613 boys and 2,82,250 girls - were admitted to Standard-I during the drive this year from June 16 to 18, according to reports received here today from 25 district headquarters.

The drive is carried out only in schools run by Panchayats and Nagarpalikas and will continue till August 31 to ensure no eligible child in plus-5 age group is left out. The number would double by then, a senior officer told UNI.

The number of children admitted to Std-I during the last four years was 11.67 lakh, 11.01 lakh, 11.08 lakh and 10.31 lakh.

Moreover, the officer said, the job is not as simple as said. It requires months of preparation. The stress is on girls education as the ministers and bureaucrats go particularly to those villages with very low literacy rates.

Each officer is allotted 15 villages, five every day, as per the meticulous plan. They night halt at villages or nearest towns, if far away from their headquarters.

UNI