Drive to bring dropouts back to school gets delayed

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 17 JUNE: To reduce the proportions of dropouts from the primary and secondary level, the state has asked all districts to launch a special drive for the admission of children and young people left out of the education system.

The drive was to occur between 16 and 23 June, but the programme is not being implemented here. The obvious reason is the ongoing summer vacation.

The district project officer, Mr Sarba Shiksha Abhijan (SSA), Mr Chinmay Sarkar, said: “Though the state project director (SSA) has asked that a special drive be launched between 16 and 23 June, the programme has been deferred because of the ongoing summer vacation.”

“We have decided to launch the same programme between 8 and 15 July after the end of the summer vacation in all secondary and primary schools," Mr Sarkar said.

According to the direction of the government, Malda district held a meeting on the subject on 5 June at the district level. The BDOs have held similar meetings at block level to ascertain and identify dropout students and initiate a move to get them re-admitted into schools.

The BDO has directed that meetings be held at gram panchayat level beginning 15 June. The members of the gram panchayat will hold meetings at gram sansad level between 16 to 30 June to ascertain the number of children and young people of school age, who have missed out of education in their villages.

Following the process, the district administration will monitor the present number of dropouts in the district and take initiatives to bring them back to their schools. The district magistrate will report online to the state fortnightly. The reporting is planned to be completed by 15 September, before the Puja.

In Malda, many students leave their studies between class V and VIII to go to other states with relatives in search of jobs. Many then return home as migrant labourers, owing to poverty.

Life imprisonment

MALDA, 17 JUNE: The fast track (fifth) court in Malda today sentenced three persons including a soothsayer to life imprisonment for murdering a seventy year old tribal woman branding her a ‘witch'. The incident took place at Almatpur village in Gazole in January 2003. SNS

Four persons injured

MALDA, 17 JUNE: Four persons including a woman were injured in a clash between BSF jawans and villagers at Kalaibari under Habibpur police station area last night. The conditions of two of them - Mr Tarun Mandal and Mrs Rina Mandal, admitted at the Malda district hospital are stated to be serious. But no police complaint have been reported yet.SNS