Southern States - Pondicherry   

`Alternative School' to reinduct dropouts

By Our Staff Reporter

PONDICHERRY DEC. 27. In an effort to reinduct 4,000-odd school dropouts in Pondicherry into the regular education system, an `Alternative School' will be set up under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) by end of January 2004, according to the Education Minister, K. Lakshminarayanan. Talking to The Hindu, Mr Lakshminarayanan said work had already begun on a separate syllabus for the `bridge courses' that would prepare the children to join the regular stream. "Whatever they have lost in terms of school will be made up in a short time as possible", he said and added that they were planning to involve NGOs.

The Director in-charge of the SSA, Ramdas, said a survey of the four regions, conducted in 2002, revealed that there were a total of 4,371 children in the 6-14 age group who were not attending school. The Village Education Committees (VEC) and the School Level Committee (SLC) in urban areas, constituted under the SSA, had also carried out a door-to-door survey recently on school dropouts. "It is the duty of these committee members to convince the parents of these children that schooling and education is a must since the main objective of the scheme was all children from 5-14 should be brought to schools by the end of this year". For slow learners too the SSA has plans, it plans to rope in the help of teacher trainees in the institutions in and around Pondicherry, according to Mr Ramdas. "We have identified slow learners and we will be providing special coaching for them in which we are trying to enlist the support of teacher training institutions so that their students can teach our students belonging to standards 6, 7 and 8 who need additional help".

The members of the VEC and SLC are currently undergoing training from SSA resource persons on their duties, on how they should function and what they must do under the scheme. The committees that consist of local people and staff from the school will help build a bridge between the school and the local people, Mr Lakshminarayanan said and added that the committee would deal with any problem arising between students and teachers. "We are trying to make the community realise that the school is theirs and not just the government's responsibility". He said of the total Rs. 11 crore allocated for SSA this year, the Government of India had sanctioned Rs 7.5 crores for the SSA as its 75 per cent share and the remaining by the Pondicherry Government.

On Saturday, a one-day training programme was held at five primary schools at Kuruchikuppam, Embalam, Villianur, Kirumambakkam and the Ecole Angle. The Deputy Inspector of Schools, Zone I, Shenbagavalli Panneerselvam, said three kinds of grants had been provided to each school, a maintenance grant of Rs 5,000 per year, a Rs 2,000 school grant and Rs 500 teacher grant for teaching aid.

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