It was heartening to see the news item on  the campaign “I Study” for the school dropouts by the initiative of Deputy Commissioner Upper Subansiri Danish Ashraf. The main focus of this campaign it seems is to promote and ensure re-enrolment of drop-out students of the district, who have left their schools at an early age due to various financial and other reasons.  Poverty, availability, and accessibility are three big reasons why children drop out of school. When a family is not financially secure, prioritising a child’s education takes a backseat. Post-Class V, distance to school also tends to increase, and parents deem it unsafe for a child, especially girls, to travel far.  Another reason why drop-rates rise after Class V is that this is the stage when a child reaches the age 10-11 years when it is considered suitable for induction into child labour. For impoverished peasants he or she is an extra hand to add to the much needed succuor. The role of the teacher, too, is critical, as drop-outs often speak of teachers beating them or berate them as good for nothing in front of classmates.

There are 6.21 crore children out of school in India according to the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s 2014 Educational Statistic Report. While the presence of a motivated, professionally trained teacher is recognised as the most critical prerequisite for the education of a child, India experiences a shortage of 9 lakh teachers, and many more need training. Lack of safe and secure environment in schools, especially for girls, absence of separate functional toilets along with discriminatory practices in classrooms and during mid-day meals also push more children out from school.

According to the same  Education Ministry report,  the dropout rate at primary schools in Arunachal Pradesh in 2013-14 was 10.89 per cent. This is much higher than the national average of 4.34 per cent for the same year. Thus the “I Study” campaign needs to be taken very seriously and if the Government of Arunachal Pradesh which is giving much emphasis on education can make it a government sponsored programme it will serve much better.