The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Restrooms to reduce dropout rate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 10, 2007
ePaper

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Restrooms to reduce dropout rate

Special Correspondent

Andhra Pradesh ranks second in enrolment, quality school education

HYDERABAD: Restrooms will be provided to girl students in all the schools in the State in an effort to reduce the dropout rate on account of physiological changes during their adolescence.

The restrooms will have attached bathroom, dressing rooms and supply of napkins. A woman teacher will be trained in each school to assist the adolescent girls in overcoming their problems.

Announcing this at a press conference here on Tuesday, School Education Minister N. Rajyalakshmi said a common design had been finalised for the restrooms in 3,373 schools. In all, 450 schools had already been provided with the facility.

Ms. Rajyalakshmi said the Annual Status of Education Report, prepared by an NGO, Pradham, for 2005-06 showed that Andhra Pradesh ranked second after Madhya Pradesh in enrolment and quality school education. The improvement in enrolment was "tremendous" and fall in dropout rate drastic following new initiatives taken by the Government such as `Badi Baata'.

The report also spoke about higher level of awareness in language and mathematics among the students in the schools across the State compared to their counterparts in other States. The percentage of children outside the school fold dropped to 4.1 in 2006 from 5.9 in 2005. The students in the State began to leave private schools to join the Government ones following improvement in quality in terms of teaching and infrastructure facilities. In fact, 43 private schools were closed in Srikakulam district.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh