CHENNAI: More than 60 teachers who help child labourers join mainstream schools were busy making teaching aids in Tiruvallur on Friday afternoon.

They are part of the Tiruvallur CARE project, which provides schooling for children between nine and thirteen years and vocational training for adolescents between 14 and 17 in the district.

Kalaiselvi is teaching 45 children in Red Hills this year. She found that their parents were reluctant to send their children to school as they helped in repaying debt, helped them with cooking or babysitting.

Fluctuating attendance

Attendance fluctuated at transit schools as parents pack up and leave overnight for unknown destinations, unable to repay debts to mill owners. Vinayagamurthy is a teacher at a transit school in Peravalur for children whose parents work at brick kilns. As work at the kilns is seasonal and non-existent by August, children ask for transfer certificates before joining, he said.

Influx of labour to the kilns from Villupuram, Ramanathapuram, Thiruvannamalai and Tirunelveli after Pongal results in agricultural labourers coming here with children.

Transfer certificates

The schools, in a gesture of collaboration between Labour and Education departments, issue transfer certificates permitting children to rejoin schools in the next academic year in the higher class.

Deepa, working at Kavankarai, teaches several Sri Lankan refugee children. She remembers Vahid Ali, previously working in a cycle shop, securing the fourth rank in his `mainstream' school.

These teachers were identified by non-governmental organisations. In Tiruvallur this year, 50 transit schools are being run for children, with help from brick kiln owners or NGOs. All aim to help children rejoin public schools near their homes. Children receive mid-day meals and Rs. 100 as monthly stipend.

Five-day workshop

The teachers gathered at the district headquarters for a five-day workshop on making low-cost teaching and learning material that concluded on Friday.

They would be equipped to make colourful and effective teaching aids easily, said project coordinator Priyadarshini.

More than 1,000 children previously working in rice mills, brick kilns, weaving, embroidery units, workshops, fisheries and catering, have benefited so far. Some 360 of them have been tracked as joining public schools in the area, with many more returning to school in their native districts.

Around 270 adolescents have completed vocational training so far and 340 are taking six-month courses, which aim to provide employment in service industries, said vocational training coordinator Srinivasa Varadan.

Tiruvallur CARE is part of the INDUS project to eradicate child labour, operational in five districts since 2004.

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