Lucknow: More than 23 lakh primary and middle school students have dropped out of schools in the last five years in Uttar Pradesh under the previous Akhilesh Yadav-led regime, state Basic Education Minister Anupma Jaiswal told News18.
The present government led by Yogi Adityanath is seriously working to decrease the drop out numbers, Jaiswal added.
“I believe that the problem is in front of us and I don’t deny it either. This time we have created an efficient strategy for the School Chalo campaign, it will not be just a formality like the previous government,” she said.
“I will be monitoring this campaign myself, we will also be asking state ministers and representatives to participate as well,” she added.
Jaiswal said that Adityanath himself will be heavily involved in the campaign and has said that he will go wherever his presence is required.
“All the officers and employees of Basic Education Department will also be involved in this campaign. There will also be a door-to-door campaign to spread awareness, we have also done a household survey done as well to gauge the scale of the problem,” she said.
Speaking about why so many children were dropping out of school, Jaiswal said, “The main reason behind children dropping out of school is poverty. We have tried to counsel the parents of the kids and now many kids are back to school. We are providing food, copybooks, and uniforms to the children who come to school, but still if they are dropping out then there is some laxity in our approach and I admit it. But then we have been in power for just 100 days, and we are continuously trying to minimise the figures of school drop outs in the state.”
The state government is starting campaigns called ‘Khoob Padho, Aage Badho’ from 1st July to 15th July 2017 and ‘School Chalo Abhiyan’ from 1st to 31st July 2017. In both the campaigns, the main challenge for the government will be to increase the number of enrolments and to ensure attendance of the children at the schools.
The size of problem is big. In the year 2012-13, number of children who enrolled from class 1st to 5th was 1,34,12,000. This has dropped to 1,16,93,000 in the last five-years. This means more than 18 lakh students dropped out of the school during last five years.
At the upper primary school level i.e. class 5th to 8th, number of children who enrolled in the year 2012-13 was 40,81,000. This number has dropped to 35,38,000 enrollments in the year 2016-17. This makes it clear that more than 5 lakh children dropped out schools in the last five years.
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