New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education, on Saturday discussed strategies to reintegrate dropouts into formal schooling, highlighting that over two crore children in the 14-18 age group are currently out of school.

At a meeting to review strategies and proposed initiatives to check school dropout rate, Sanjay Kumar said that, as per available data, out of every 100 children entering Class I, only 62 reach Class XII.

He said that while the primary focus should be on reintegrating children into formal schooling, those unable to return to regular schools should be linked to flexible learning pathways, such as the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and State Open Schools, through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mechanisms.

The Secretary also underlined the critical role of District Collectors and district administrations in ensuring effective grassroots implementation and transforming the initiative into a nationwide campaign.

He observed that economic compulsions, domestic responsibilities, and livelihood-related challenges are among the key factors contributing to children remaining outside the school system.

Stressing the need for urgent intervention, he emphasised that every child should have access to education at least up to the secondary and senior secondary levels, along with employable skills aligned with local economic opportunities.

Joint Secretary Prachi Pandey said that the issue of out-of-school children is being addressed in mission mode and highlighted that the proposed initiative would adopt a data-driven approach with a strong focus on last-mile outreach.

She underscored the need for convergence among departments at the State, district, and local levels to ensure effective identification, enrolment, and retention of out-of-school children.

She said that preparatory activities, including the enrolment of NIOS Facilitators, distribution of starter kits, preliminary surveys, and initial enrolment of children, would be undertaken before the formal launch of the initiative.

Pilot districts with high concentrations of out-of-school children were identified for the initial implementation of the initiative. These include districts from Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.

In the first phase, the new initiative will be implemented across 10 districts in the country. Memoranda of Commitment (MoCs) will be signed with participating States to facilitate their implementation. Based on the learnings from these districts, the programme will subsequently be scaled up across the country.

–IANS

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