By Admin | Feb 27 2022

School Dropout Rate Rose along with Covid-19

The covid 19 pandemic hit the world hard a couple of years back. Following a nation-wide lockdown, frequent curfews, travel restrictions, employment lay-offs, reduced salaries and companies shutting down, the citizens of India started feeling the heat. During the pandemic, an evil that had not been as widely prevalent previously, started to raise its ugly head – school dropouts. Statistics show that the number of people dropping out of secondary education was 17 in 100 people. This did not take into account the number of people who had never been enrolled in school.

What really happened?

Children of the daily-wage workers especially started dropping out of schools at unprecedented rates. The reason being, their parents could no longer support their education, especially when the pandemic had affected their already meager income. This scenario started taking its roots in the slums of places like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, etc

Most of these children had previously benefitted from schemes the government had introduced where their mid-day meal was provided. With the schools being shut down, they were no longer given food. They also did not have access to the digital gadgets which could have enabled an online education.

How the situation worsened

Slowly, but steadily, there was an increase in the number of children who had been enrolled in government and government-aided schools and had moved from private schools to public schools. This showed how the lower-middle class people who had also started to face the pressures of the economy and the rising costs of living.

How did we make it better?

During this tough time, with the help of our beneficiaries, we started supporting children financially, by paying the fees of children directly. Additionally, we also provided children and their families with meals during the day. Several volunteers also provided tutoring services to these children. Parents were also sensitized about the importance of education, by awareness campaigns.

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