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| Sunday, 30 November 2003 |
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Uphill task to 'rope in' NE dropouts by Shanika Sriyananda Close to 100,000 children have dropped out of schools in the North and East, due to hardships brought about by 20-years of conflict. Provincial education officers in the North and East are now facing the uphill task of getting these dropouts back to school in a Ministry of Education, UNICEF, and NGO project that seeks to restore normalcy in schools devastated by the war. The war had deprived over 65,000 children between the ages 5 to 14 - the age at which education is mandatory of any form of schooling. Most of schools in the North and East have also been destroyed by the 20-year-old war. S. Mahendran, Director Planning, Department of Education, North and East told the 'Sunday Observer' that all efforts were being made to bring back the school dropouts. "It is extremely difficult to bring starving children back to school. Most of the children survive with only one meal for the whole day. Empty stomachs kill their learning abilities", he said. Malnourished and suffering from various diseases, most of the children below 12 are the sole bread winners of their families." These children earn a living by engaging in agriculture, selling bags and home made sweets and foods in streets and looking after cows and goats. Their fathers died in the war and the whole family depend on their small daily incomes", Mahendran pointed out. There are at present over 45,000 widows in the North and East, who need financial support to feed their children. "We try hard to bring these children back to school, but sometimes we fail to keep them due to their social and financial problems. Until the initial needs of these children - security, food and health - are fulfilled it will be difficult to teach them", Mahendran pointed out. However, if these children were given the midday free meal they can be retained in schools, Mahendran said adding that permanent peace was necessary to make the lives of these children better. The families should also be financially fit to carry out work in agriculture, fishing and cottage industry, he added. Mahendran stressed the need to formulate plans to educate internally displaced children and those still living in India, who are unable to return to the country due to lack of money to pay the travelling cost. "There are nearly 300,000 children from the North and East still in India", he said. According to Mahendran, the new social culture emerging from the refugee camps is a big setback in bringing the children in refugee camps back to schools. "As a result of the 'camp culture' children, both girls and boys - marry at the age of 17 and have two or three kids before they reach 20. Due to this new culture it is very difficult to teach the value of having a good education to them", he said. |
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