News
Attendance in government schools improve vastly by implementing the Prayas initiative
Prayas initiative showing excellent results as attendance in govt schools significantly up.
Stories abound the internet about how government schools have poor attendance and how teachers are not present to teach. The news from Jharkhand will make you glad. Here the school education and literacy department is concerned not only with the enrolment rates of government schools but also regular attendance. When faced by an abysmal attendance rate of 50% the authorities swung into action and designed a unique initiative – Prayas.
The initiative involves the child cabinet which is an integral part of the organisation structure of all government schools. The cabinet comprises of 11 ministers selected among students, including an attendance minister. The cabinet is responsible for checking on students' attendance.
“Prayas, literally meaning ‘effort’ entails the cabinet and schoolteachers visiting a student’s home to gauge the situation if the child is absent from school for more than 3 days. They also try and convince the parents to send their ward to school.” said Department secretary Aradhana Patnaik.
Prayas spiked attendance in government schools. Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC) administrative officer, Pradeep Kumar Chaubey, said, "In 2014-15, the attendance count across government schools was 26 lakh against 53 lakh enrolments. After Prayas was implemented in 2015, attendance in schools increased to 32 lakh against around 49 lakh enrolments, a 65.33% spike."
Ranchi, Hazaribag, Khunti, Ramgarh and Simdega recorded the highest attendance with more than 70% children attending class. Hazaribag bagged top spot with the highest attendance at 77.27%. The other end of the spectrum was marked by Pakur, Sahebganj, Godda, Latehar and Garwah with a low annual average attendance of 65%, with Pakur at the bottom with 54.67%.
Department secretary Aradhana Patnaik said, "After the success of the pilot project launched in 2014-15, Prayas was implemented across 40,000 government schools in the state." The programme works on the principle of community mobilization.