NEW DELHI: Approximately 10 per cent children between the age of six and seventeen years have either stopped coming or never attended school. Most of them dropped out due to financial strain. This was found by the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi’s (GNCTD) soci-economic survey covering 1.02 crore people. The survey was conducted between November 2018 and November 2019 and finalised in November 2020.
Of 22,70,497 children between ages six to seventeen who were part of the research, it was found that 2,21,694 were not attending school. Among these, 1,31,584 had reported that they used to attend school but dropped out or discontinued with their education. The remaining 90,110 reported that they have never been to school.
Among all age categories, financial limitation has been reported as the reason for not attending school for 29.17 per cent of children; domestic responsibilities for 13.5 per cent; 12.7 per cent reported having reached the “desired level of education”; and 35.79 per cent are under the vast category of “others”, including disability, mental illness, lack of interest and no admission.
Kavita Rana, Assistant Project Director, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, said that they have written to the Planning Department, under which the survey was conducted, requesting details on the children found to be out of school with an intention to trace them.
Under Samagra Shiksha, education department officials trace ‘out-of-school children’ every year and try their best to admit them in Special Training Centres, which work to prepare them for mainstream school at an age-appropriate class.