Jharkhand News: Palamu DC addresses alarming dropout rates at ‘School Ruar 2025’

THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK

Daltonganj, April 25: Measles outbreaks and Mahua fruit harvesting, though unrelated, have emerged as key reasons for children dropping out of government schools.

Seasonal measles infections often lead to prolonged absences on legitimate health grounds. However, once recovered, many children show reluctance to return to school, gradually slipping out of the system.

Similarly, the Mahua harvesting season draws many children away from classrooms. Accompanying their mothers to collect the fruits, these children miss school to support their families’ income.

For many poor households, immediate economic benefit takes precedence over education. A Mahua fruit translates to a few guaranteed rupees, and families are often unwilling to forgo that income, even if it means sacrificing their children’s schooling.

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At School Ruar 2025, a Santhali term popularised by the then Khunti DC Shashi Ranjan who is now the Palamu DC, the gathering at the Pdt Deen Dayal Upadhyay Smriti Nagar Bhavan was asked reasons behind the dropout of the children from the government schools.

DC Shashi Ranjan in fact, asked the gathering to come out of their opinion about the dropout. There came a motley of opinions. Many of them were free, frank and factual.

12 Key Issues Behind Dropouts

The Jharkhand Story correspondent who covered this School Ruar 2025, which means back to school, listed the opinions as follows.

1. Government schools lack the adequate strength of teachers.
2. Government school teachers who possess higher degrees than their counterparts in the run-of-the-mill private schools are despirited and demotivated, mostly because of the unwanted intervention of the offices of either the education superintendent or the education officer.
3. Parents are apathetic to the primary or middle scale education of their wards. They want their wards to help in bringing in money home or better say, do goat grazing or cattle grazing instead of remaining confined to schools.
4. Private schools are a status symbol. Parents feel proud of speaking about their wards having primary and middle school teaching in some private schools.
5. Government schools fudge midday meals. It records meals prepared for children who are absent even.
6. There are children who have dual enrollment, one in a private school and the other in a government school.
7. Children in government residential schools have one bad habit. It’s their long absence.
8. Migratory labourer families carry with them their belongings, including their school-going children.
9. A proper ambience is missing in the government schools. The atmosphere looks monotonous and burdensome.
10. Anganwadi sevikas and sahayekas shirk their duties in bringing children to the government schools.
11. There is a difference in the books prescribed for the government schools and the private schools. Private school books are expensive and wear a look of storehouse of knowledge while the matter of fact is that NCERT books have no parallel to it at all. NCERT books look age-worn while books of the private schools are delightfully full of paintings and drawings.
12. Child marriage was cited as one of the reasons by a senior education department officer which was trashed by the DC Shashi Ranjan, saying “Child marriage can’t be any factor. It’s one or two which is also stifled.”

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DC Challenges Perception of Govt Schools

It was DC Shashi Ranjan who reversed the preference when he said, “Government medical college is preferred to private medical college, government IIT college is preferred to private, but when it comes to grassroots learning, people backseat the government schools and choose expensive private schools. Why?”

DC knew there would come no answer to his queries. He then said, “All hell is broken when a child is found sweeping the floor of the government school. What is wrong with it? Such activities promote a sense of belongingness of child to his school.”

Naudeeha Bazar: A High-Dropout Zone

Naudeeha Bazar is one such police station area in Palamu where there is a very high incidence of dropouts of children of the government schools in both the age categories of 6 to 14 and 14 to 18.

It is 448 and 348, respectively. When pointed out by the Jharkhand Story correspondent, the DC said, “I do find this high incidence of dropouts here in Naudeeha Bazar. It’s a matter of concern. I will take down my team there to find out the reasons for such a high rate of dropouts here in Naudeeha Bazar.”

Promoting Good Teaching Through Video Clip

DC hinted at launching a video clip of ‘good teachers’ imparting teachings in various other government schools.

The idea is novel but it is delicate. How to pick a good teacher among the lot of mediocrity. Again, it’s a tight rope walk for a good teacher to be good at teaching all the time.

School Ruar 2025 here in Daltonganj was quite a good effort put up by the District Superintendent of Education Sandeep Kumar, and the District Education Officer Saurav Prakash.