Naina Mishra Chandigarh, September 19 The UT has proposed to the Centre for developing a national portal to check or trace out-of-school children (below 18 years of age) and update their record on the portal with coordination of various states. The UT has suggested having a tracking system for the identification of school dropouts, enrolling them in schools again and monitoring their attendance for two to three years. Furthermore, the UT suggested that common residential facilities should be made available at the district headquarters or shelter homes for students who do not stay at home to reduce the dropout rate. “Dropouts aged 15 and above, who are nearly illiterate, should be given an option to attend adult literacy programmes. For such children, a bridge curriculum should be formulated to make sure that all schools conform to the same criteria and level,” stated the UT. It has also advocated for residential facilities for orphaned children, children from migratory population, children whose parents are in jail and other needy children. “For reducing the dropout rate, common residential facilities should be made available at the district headquarters or shelter homes for students who do not stay at home or with parents,” it suggested. ‘Out-of-school children can’t be zero’ When the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) asked Chandigarh to bring down the number of out-of-school children (OoSC) to zero during the annual review meeting, the UT informed the Centre that it was not feasible to bring it down the number to zero as there is continuous inflow of migratory population.

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