Dropout rate among slum students rises after mobile schools’ closure

Twelve-year-old Uma stopped going to school after the mobile schools were shut.

By Uzmi Athar

BANGALORE (Dec. 8)—There has been an increase in the number of school dropouts among children of the Nayandahalli, Peenya, Kodigehalli, Banasvadi slums in Bangalore after the Right to Education Act forced mobile schools in the city to shut down.

According to the recently enacted law, no school may run on wheels anymore although around 421 children were being educated at them when they stopped operating in April.

“Mobile schools were good—I used to like studying there, and we got good food, pens, and slate,” said Uma, a 12-year-old dropout from the Nayandahalli slum.

Uma is not the only one who stopped going to school one fine day. There are around 30 students who have discontinued studies after the closure of mobile schools from the Nayandahalli slum.

“She has to take care of her four siblings,” said Jayanti, Uma’s mother. “We’ll get her married soon—what is the point in teaching her?”

Even the students who have continued their studies and joined government schools are frequently absent.
Mobile schools allowed students to bring siblings with them which is not possible in normal government schools.

Uma takes care of her four siblings.

Shanti, a mother from the slums said: “Bhavani, my girl, has joined the government school after the mobile school was shut down. But she can’t take her brothers along—where will they stay when I go to work?”

But the government has its own reasons in place in shutting down the mobile schools.

Marankaih, assistant director of Karnataka Education said, “There was only 10 percent utilization of mobile schools—there was no point carrying on with it.”

He added that the government has introduced many schemes to compensate for mobile schools and it would take time to implement them.

A good idea that went to waste
The mobile school project started with four schools under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan education-for-all policy in 1999.

This project was aimed at providing education to the underprivileged children in slums. It was aimed at bringing children to regular schools after providing a year of mobile schooling.

Jayanti asked Uma to drop out after the mobile schools were closed.

Under this project, old buses were converted into mobile classrooms. The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation had contributed buses for this purpose.

These children were picked up from their homes, taught in these schools from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dropped back home after classes. By April 2010, 10 more mobile schools were added to the project.

“The concept of mobile schools had started bringing many slum kids back on the track of education. This sudden shift has brought a big change in their life,” said Puttayamma, a teacher at the government school at Lakshmidevi Nagar, close to Peenya slums.

“I was frustrated by the response we got from the government and parents,” Herald Quadris, former assistant director of Karnataka Education said. “There was lack of awareness among parents as well. They were more interested in making their children work than to make them study.”