Shillong, March 20 (IANS): Nearly a lakh of boys and girls dropped out or did not get enrolled in schools in the past four years in Meghalaya, School Education and Literacy Minister Deborah C. Marak said on Monday. "There are many factors and reasons for the drop-outs which include economic condition of the rural masses, poor infrastructure of existing state government schools, lack of access to schools due to small habitations, teacher behaviour and lack of training besides domestic and sibling-care responsibility for girls," the minister told the assembly during Question Hour. Replying to queries raised by Congress legislator Dikkanchi D. Shira, she said a total of 97,089 students from 11 districts across Meghalaya dropped out or did not get enrolled in schools from 2013 to 2107. Shocked with the drop-out rate, legislators from opposition benches asked the government to adopt serious measures to bring the drop-outs back to school. Opposition United Democratic Party legislator Paul Lyngdoh asked the government to create more vocational institutions to curb the worrisome dropout rates in the state. While admitting that teachers in the remote areas of Garo Hills refused to attend schools due to militant-threats, Marak, however, said that her department hasww directed Deputy Commissioners in these affected areas to provide security to teachers. She said the government was trying, through intervention under SSA scheme, to bring back children to school by setting up 418 special training centres across the state. "The department is holding household visits awareness programmes in area where the number of dropouts is high," Marak added.
