High dropout rate among girls in Mewat, rules relaxed

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 25

Picture this: In all, 1.62 lakh children are enrolled in primary government schools in Haryana’s Mewat district. This number drops to 48,000 in the middle school and to just over 9,000 in Class XI.

The students who drop out of schools are essentially girls and it is not because they do not want to study further, but they drop out for want of schools in their vicinity since parents are reluctant to send them to for classes in adjoining villages.

Alarmed at this high dropout rate, the Haryana School Education Department has decided to relax rules for upgrading government schools in Mewat while the government has agreed to open 20 more primary schools in the district with one of the poorest social indices.

Sources said Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar had given his nod to relaxation of rules in the area and student-norms, mandatory for upgradation of schools in a bid to check the high dropout rate. Under the policy, it is laid down that two acre of land must be available for middle and secondary schools and the nearest school should be at a distance of 5 km, besides having a particular student-strength.

Consequently, the request for upgradation of schools was turned down repeatedly. However, with the Chief Minister approving relaxation of rules, 30 schools will be upgraded from middle to secondary and secondary to senior secondary. Also, the government has identified villages where 20 new primary schools will be opened.

This issue was taken up by Indian National Lok Dal MLA from Nuh, Zakir Hussain, who collected dropout statistics across the district and brought it to the notice of the authorities. He later got resolutions from various panchayats, supporting the need for more schools and relaxation of rules, to facilitate upgradation.

“An impression has been created that the Meos don’t want their girls to study. That is not the case. The only problem is that they don’t want their girls going to schools located in adjoining villages for pursuing studies since it seems unsafe to them. A number of panchayats raised this issue with me. Despite being in the Opposition, I pursued the cause and it has borne fruit,” he said.

TC Gupta, Financial Commissioner (school education), confirmed the government had decided to relax rules in the interest of students. “The Chief Minister has approved the upgradation of government schools and opening of primary schools by relaxing the condition for Mewat district. We don’t want to deprive education to any child,” he said.