Teachers to escort students from home to check dropouts in Uttar Pradesh

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The Uttar Pradesh government has devised a new plan to check school dropout rate, particularly among girls.

The state education department will now ask teachers and the non-teaching employees in schools in rural and semi-urban areas to escort students, particularly girls, from their homes to school and back.

This is seen as a measure to reassure parents that their children are safe while going to school and returning home. The directive will apply to primary and secondary schools from July.

According to additional director, basic education, Mahendra Singh Rana, the dropout rate in schools has increased following cases of abduction and rape.

“In the semi-urban and rural areas the schools are located in secluded areas and parents are getting increasingly wary of sending their daughters to school. To overcome this problem, we have decided to ask teachers to accompany students on their way to school and back. For this, we will ask them to form groups of students living in a particular area and one teacher will accompany them. This is likely to check the dropout rate and ensure the safety of the students,” Rana said.

All schools are being asked to end at one time so that students can move out in groups together. Besides this, the state government has also decided to introduce more incentive for students to come to school. Birthdays of students will now be celebrated in their schools as well.

All students whose birthdays fall in a particular month will collectively celebrate on the last day of the month.