Kerala launches drive to curb school dropouts among migrant workers’ children

Kerala Chief Minister launches academic program for inter-State migrant workers' children, highlighting LDF government's achievements in various sectors.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday launched a Statewide special academic programme to ensure school education for the children of inter-State migrant workers and to check the dropout rate among them.

The local self-government institutions have to maintain an academic register, outlining the academic status of such children and initiate remedial measures as required, he said at the Ernakulam district-level face-to-face programme held as part of the four-year celebrations of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) at KINFRA convention centre at Kakkanad.

He said that it was the responsibility of the State to ensure that children of the inter-State workers attended schools. A situation in which they wander in the streets instead of going to schools has to be avoided, he said.

The Chief Minister pointed out that teachers and school authorities in each region have to visit the houses of the inter-State migrant workers as a team along with the officials of the Department of Local-Self Government to verify whether their children are attending school on a regular basis.

On the achievements of the LDF government, Mr. Vijayan said the State has achieved all-round development across various sectors, including industrial growth, health, higher education, agriculture, and general education.

In the nation-wide rankings in the category of State Public Universities, Kerala has three universities figuring within the first 12 positions including Kerala University, Cochin University of Science and Technology and Mahatma Gandhi University. Sixteen colleges in the State figured among the top 100 colleges in the country [National Institutional Ranking Framework], indicating the progress achieved, he said.

The Chief Minister said the growth rate in the agriculture sector has increased from 2 percent in 2016 to 4.6% now. The paddy cultivation went up from 1.7 lakh hectares in 2016 to 2.23 lakh hectares, he said.