By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: No child of school going age would remain out of school next year in Madhya Pradesh. All of them would be enrolled in schools.
The Madhya Pradesh state government has achieved considerably success in this regard over last four years. There were 700,74 lakh out-of-school children in the year 2003 in the state. Now their number has been reduced to 65,000 following concerted efforts made in the state for enrolment of such children, an official Press release claimed.
Besides, the dropout rate has also come down during the period. The dropout rate at primary level was 25.6 per cent in year 2003 which has come down to 17.6 per cent in the year 2007. At middle level the dropout rate has come down from 26.6 percent in 2003 to 16.3 percent in the year 2007.
The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GNR) was 101.7 percent at primary level in year 2003, which has increased to 104.6 per cent in the year 2007. At middle level this ratio was 56.6 per cent, which has increased to 95.3 per cent in the year 2007.
Similarly, the Net Enrolment Ratio (NER), which was 82 per cent in year 2003, has increased to 95.9 per cent at primary level and in case of middle level it has gone up from 66 per cent to 88.2 per cent during the period.
A joint review mission sent by Government of India for review of implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) early this year lauded the achievements in Madhya Pradesh. The review mission praised the efforts of state government for enrolment of out-of-school children and to bring down the dropout rate.
The credit of these achievements has been given to “School Chalen Ham” drive, residential bridge course, non-residential bridge course, human development centres and other innovative programmes. ([email protected])