Delhi: Survey finds 11,000 children between 6 and 14 aren’t in school

The data was collected between December 28, 2018 and January 15, 2019 by a team of Cluster Resource Coordinators and Special Training Centre teachers.

According to an official working with the SSA in Delhi, teachers visited various neighbourhoods and collated data by speaking to parents, pradhans and resident welfare associations.

The data collated by them shows that the total number of out-of-school children in the age category 6-10 is 8,404, and in the category 11-14 is 2,902.

In both age categories, the number of boys identified as being out of school is higher than girls, with the total number standing at 6,270 boys and 5,036 girls.

The district-wise break-up shows that the highest number of out-of-school children (1,981) were in Northwest A. This covers areas such as Jahangirpuri, Bhalswa, Azadpur, Narela, Bawana and Holambi Kalan.

Other districts which have high numbers are Northeast, Southeast and South at 1,551, 1,645 and 1,372, respectively. These districts have a sizeable number of resettlement colonies, and a large population pressure on a limited number of schools. The heads of all government and government-aided schools have been directed to ensure that these children are enrolled into schools.“The first step is to get these children admitted to schools. There are Special Training Centres in about 560 schools to provide bridge courses to help them. The next step would be to identify how many of these children are dropouts and how many have never been enrolled,” the official said, adding that Aadhaar enrolment is being carried out for identified children to better monitor them and try and make sure that they do not slip out of the system again.

However, Dr Wilima Wadhwa, director ASER, said that in order to target beneficiaries, a census would have been necessary to obtain absolute numbers of children outside the system.