Home calling? What's causing learning loss among kids in Delhi-NCR

NOIDA: It has been three years since Lalita, now 15, has been to school. Instead, she is taking stitching lessons at an NGO near her house hoping to bag a job in a garment factory.

It was her parents' search for better employment opportunities that brought the teenager to Noida from Assam.

"Initially, I took admission in a government school in Noida. But during the pandemic, we went back to our village and returned two years later. When we did come back, I did not get admission in my old school," she said.

Like Lalita, nearly 90% of students in government primary schools across Gautam Buddha Nagar face discontinuation of education due to migration and dropout. "Of the total 296 students in our school, 248 are children of migrant labourers. Once these kids go to their village, they take 3 to 4 months, at times more, to return," Arvind Kumar, assistant principal of Tugalpur Primary School, said.

Delhi-NCR remains a major destination for north Indian migrants - a sizeable group among the 453.6 million migrants in the country as per Census 2011.

While the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, aims to provide free and compulsory elementary education of equitable quality to all children aged 6 to 14, several studies indicate that migrant children are more vulnerable to disruption in education and frequently drop out of school.

Loss and gaps in learning also make it difficult for them to cope with varying academic curricula, the language of instruction, and the difficulty of re-enrolling in another school among others. According to the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) Plus 2021-22 report, 1.5% of migrant children dropped out of primary schools (classes 1 to 5) in that academic year from 0.8% in 2020-21.

"Every year, we need to cancel the enrollment of nearly 60 out of 140 students in our school," Rakesh Sharma, principal of a government primary school in Dankaur block, said. Students go back to their native places for different purposes, including relatives' wedding ceremonies, harvest or to avail state government schemes and come back six months or more later, he said.

Schools have introduced additional remedial classes for students who return late, but teachers believe they are not enough. "How can we complete the whole syllabus if we continue to take remedial classes? Once students come back, they forget everything that was taught. It seems all our efforts go in vain," Shalini Sharma, a teacher in a government primary school at Kasna, said.

Meanwhile, there seems to be a gap in data accounting for migrant children at the grassroots level. When contacted, Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) Aishwariya Lakshmi told TOI, "We do not have any number for migrant children. However, we have instructed schools to provide remedial classes for them."

According to NGOs working for migrant labourers in the NCR city, most daily wagers work as household helps in residential areas or in factories. "When making ends meet becomes tough, sending children to school ceases to be a priority for parents. Those who manage to enrol their kids in schools are least bothered about facilities provided to their children," Mala Bhandari, a social worker, said.


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