18 hours ago
- General
- New Indian Express
Gadag leads Karnataka's fight against school dropouts with door-to-door campaign
GADAG: Karnataka has a problem with learning. The state's school dropout rate in secondary education is 22%, way higher than the national average of 14%, according to statistics available for 2023-24. The dropout rate was 1.7% in primary education and 2.7% in upper primary education.
Despite constitutional provisions such as Right to Education Act (RTE), 2009, improving the situation is a huge challenge.
Now Gadag is living up to that challenge with an admirable initiative, led by Minister for Law and Tourism and Gadag MLA, HK Patil. The town is looking for its missing children.
Gadag Deputy Director's Office, Gadag Area Education Officer's Office and Siddalinga Nagar Government High School have jointly organised a campaign 'Come, Come to School, for a Bright Future' from June first week.
The aim of the campaign is to bring back school dropouts. Many officials in both urban and rural areas are now looking for students in farms and working sites to convince their parents and children themselves to come back to schools.
'Come, Come to School, for a Bright Future' is a process-driven project. First, the officials and teachers conducted a survey and prepared a list of dropped out students. Then they mapped them as per area, village and wards. Block Education Officers (BEO) roped in Cluster Resource Persons, teachers and headmasters and started visiting houses of dropped out students. They then persuaded the parents to send their wards back to school and convinced them about the fruits of education.
Till Saturday, their efforts have brought back 14 students in Gadag town, 11 students in Ron town and eight in Gadag Rural area to schools. The state education department has not yet collated the data since it is only the beginning of the campaign.
The students are thrilled to come back to school. Twelve-year-old Chittaranjan (name changed) said: 'We are thankful to the school and the education department for conducting a survey and bringing us back to school. Many students of our age are now coming back after watching us. Consecutive droughts, floods and Covid waves forced many children to quit school. We are happy that this new campaign will bring back many of us back to their schools.'
