Primary Education-School Dropouts

“In India youth are not useless they are used less”. This statement reminds me of the untapped and unattended youth strength in our country, which if harnessed properly would play key role in India becoming a world leader. According to 2001 Census, 40% of the population is below age of 40%, and as per these estimates 55% of our population will be under 20 by end of 2015. This would make India the most sought after destination for outsourcing all sorts of work, or in other terms people factory owing to the aging problem in Europe and the Americas.

But can we capitalize on this demographic advantage or squander it and let our geographic neighbour and arch rival China capitalize on it? Despite of 40% dropout rate in primary schools, and lack of proper school setup in rural India, the annual spending has dropped to mere 2.8% of our GDP. At the same time China spends 8% of its GDP on education despite having decent education set and support system even in its remotest locations.

Government’s enforcements like “Right to education Act” wouldn’t have an immediate effect on the literacy in our nation, owing to poverty. In slums and rural areas every child is considered to be additional earning member. Most of the families below poverty line require every member in the family to work for their daily meal.

It is onus on every educated citizen to work towards bringing awareness among youth in our country and contribute in our little way towards primary education.  It is disheartening to see the growth of slums at an alarming rate. This has lead to literacy and child labour in urban areas.

To curb this illiteracy and child labour in urban areas, a group of individuals made an attempt to bring School to door steps of the construction workers and people in slums. Door Step School has been set up to educate children of slum dwellers, construction workers and many underprivileged.  Currently they do have their presence in Mumbai and Pune and they have succeeded in educating over 50000 children as on today.

Let s have a firsthand experience about the operation and working of Door Step School from the members. Before that please log in to their web site  http://www.doorstepschool.org  for additional information.