More Than 3000 Children in Maharashtra Away From School: Education Department Survey – News18

After tackling the issue of illegal schools in the state, the Maharashtra state government’s Education Department is struggling to get back children into school. In August, the Education Department conducted a survey in the state to track children who are still away from school and found out that more than 3000 children were there who never got into the school or left the school halfway due to various reasons.

This issue was also raised by a few members of the lower house of the Maharashtra State Assembly. With their question on this issue, they brought to the notice of the house that from August 17 to 31, 2023 when the state govt conducted the survey to bring irregular, migrated children back to the school, the school education department found that the number is worrisome. As per a written reply by Minister Deepak Kesar, the findings of this survey which his department conducted in August this year, shows that 1624 boys and 1590 girls were found to be away from the school.

According to the survey, 356 children were found to be away from school in Mumbai. But with quick action, the department managed to admit all 356 children in the school the same year. In Thane, the district department found 380 such children who are away from the school, To date they have managed to admit 297 children to the school. In the Raigad district, all 97 children who were found to be away from the school were admitted to the school by the education department.

In the Palghar district, the department found that 928 children are away from school education but to date, the department has admitted only 165 children to the school. After the survey, it was found that in the state, a total of 3214 children were away from school. But till now, the department has managed to admit only 1574 children to the school and they are in the process of admitting the remaining 1574 students to the school.

The Education Department is already fighting to close down the illegal schools running in any part of the state, but an official survey was conducted for 14 days in August to track such children who are irregular or migrated and thus, away from school shown figure which crosses 3000, an expert in this domain on the condition of not disclosing the name told this reporter that, if the department conducts such survey more thoroughly and for more than month the figures could go much higher.