Patna: A massive enrollment drive launched by the state government earlier this month has got more than two million children taking admissions in government schools in Bihar.
Those taking admissions include a considerable number of children who had quit schools after their parents lost their jobs as a result of the national-wide COVID-19-induced lockdown.
The state government had launched the special enrollment drive on March 8 to admit children from Grade One to Grade Nine in schools and also lure those who quit studies midway due to severe financial crisis in the family as a result of lockdown.
The government involved school principals, teachers, and other government staff to convince the parents to admit their children to schools.
Significantly, the campaign has been a massive success with more than two million out-of-school children taking admissions just within 14 days of its launch.
Education department officials said an average 150,000 children have been taking admissions in government-run schools each day in the state which is very encouraging.
Tea stall
Eight-year-old Soni Kumari of Madiri locality in Patna is very happy to get back to school. “I eagerly wished to attend school but now my dream has become a reality,” she said after being enrolled in Grade Three in a local government girl school.
Ganesh Kumar is also on cloud nine after his admission in a local school. Prior to his admission, he would assist his father in running a tea stall in the state capital but now he is busy with books.
In several schools, the schools administration decorated the classrooms with learning aids like abacus, cushion balls and plastic bats to lure the kids to schools and generate their interest in classroom activities.
A school in Banka district even started a new idea of planting a sapling in school campus and around to mark each new admission. Officials said the children of six years of age are being enrolled in Grade One whereas special consideration is being given for enrolment in Grade six to nine.
“There is a tremendous enthusiasm across the state for the enrollment. The people are very eager to admit their children to schools to make up their study loss caused by lockdown,” a senior Bihar Education Project official Sanjay Singh said.
Decline in admissions
As per the report, the decision to launch the campaign was taken due to the decline in enrolment in government schools in 2020-21 as a result of COVID-19 pandemic which brought untold miseries to people across India. A report of Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) says that the number of admission of children in government schools has registered considerable decline in the in the past five years although it doesn’t have proper data about the number of children quitting schools due to coronavirus crisis since it is still conducting survey.
However, according to an official report, around three million migrant workers returned to their homes in Bihar last year after they lost jobs when the Indian government imposed nation-wide lockdown to check spread of coronavirus. Majority of them had come with their families without caring about the academic career of their children enrolled in various schools across the country.
According to the report, there are around 25 districts in Bihar out of its total 38, where migrants are impressive in numbers—ranging from 40,000 to over 100,000. Of them, two districts, such as Madhubani and East Champaran have more than 100,000 migrant workers while in four districts, their population is more than 80,000. “Well, you can imagine how the children might have suffered academic loss when their parents lost jobs and returned home as a result of lockdown,” commented a social scientist S Narayan.
