Drop out rate of students and Drop out Reasons in India According to the statistics from Ministry of Human Resources and Development Bureau of Planning, Monitoring and Statistics, the drop out rate is 47.4 in the year 2013-14 from class 1 to 10th. Based on studies from government and NGOs in different states, economic reasons was cited as one of the biggest reason for not sending student to school by parents. “School dropout rate amongst adolescent girls in India is as high as 63.5% (Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation – MoSPI, 2012)” Drop out Rate is the percentage of students who drop out from a given grade or cycle or level of education in a given school year.
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With your tremendous support we are very happy to share our progress for last one year. Please keep supporting us and together let’s help more deserving students.
It was Oct 17th 2014 (Friday), 5.00 PM and the news channels broadcasted that there was a heavy depression in Bay of Bengal and it was going to rain for the next 2 days. I looked out of the window and surprisingly the forecast was right, it was raining quite heavily. I repeatedly called Bhaskar to check whether the condition in Theni is any better and will there be any issue travelling there that week. And Bhaskar in-turn was checking the condition and answering me quite patiently and made me feel quite safe to go-ahead with this travel as planned.
So I was prepared for this one day trip to Chinnur Colony with a lot of excitement. I was told that we will have to go by a vehicle till the foothills and then have a 9 kms walk along the hills passing through a few rivers on the way to reach this place. Now you would know why I was excited about this! 🙂
I reached Koyambedu bus stand at 9PM passing through the abnormal traffic buildup due to the rain. Shortly I had Bhaskar, Dilip and Surendar joining me and we happily settled down in the sleeper bus that we had booked for this trip. It was a very comfortable place to be in after standing in the Koyambedu bus stand amidst the heavy rain (Folks in Chennai will know what I meant here :)). In no time all of us were asleep with the excitement still at its peak over the next day’s adventure that awaited us.
We woke up the next day to witness the bus passing through some of the beautiful landscapes far away from the traffic, heat and pollution. It was a very pleasant morning with a light drizzle and we were very thankful that it was only a light drizzle and not heavy rain as mentioned in news channels.
We had Mr. Pandi kannan who is a relative of Dilip and is from the Police Department to receive us at the Theni bus stop and had a room booked for us to refresh and get ready for the exciting day ahead. He was very helpful and without him this trip wouldn’t have been possible.
We started our journey towards the foothill loaded with some food in our backpack. We were accompanied by Mr. Pandi kannan’s colleague, Mr. Pandi Kannan and the head master of a school which teaches students from these tribal villages.
We reached the foothill and had all our ammunitions loaded for the trip ahead. We had the villagers to help us reach the destination and also to help us carry all the clothing we brought for the villagers and kids of Chinnur Colony. We felt that the nature around us was literally speaking to us and it made me think that we are missing a lot of happiness in our life by staying away from the beautiful nature that the god has created for us to enjoy and live.
We started with a very brisk walk passing through various landscapes in this stretch of 9 kms with the help of the kind villagers. It was a plain slope to start with and we felt that as we advanced it was really getting tough and tired. We had to pass through a plain stretch and then some hilly terrain and then two rivers which had a lot of water flowing dangerously.
The calm plain terrain was a treat to walk past and we really enjoyed that stretch.
The villagers formed a human chain to help us pass through the rivers on the way. The flow was quite heavy and there was no way we could have reached the destination without the help of the villagers.
We were also seen crawling at different places which the villagers passed through at ease. We felt that we were climbing the Himalayas for the first time in the world 🙂
After all the heroics and two packets of Glucose on our way 🙂 we reached the final destination (Chinnur Colony) feeling grateful about the fact that we were able to reach the destination and still had the energy for rest of the day! As a matter of fact we will have to again climb down to reach back home and should be done on the same day. By the time we reached the village it was 2PM (we took 5 hrs to cover that 9 kms stretch)!
The villagers were all gathered with a lot of questions in their eyes. We were offered the hill coffee as they call it which was a black coffee which they cultivate in this area. I have never had such a coffee in my lifetime. It was so tasty and I almost asked them for a few packets to take back home. It gave us a lot more energy than what we got in the two packets of Glucose 🙂
We started explaining about Aalayam Foundation and how we can help their children get educated. We distributed the clothes that we took with us which brought a lot of smile in their faces. It was a learning for us interms of understanding how people are living without even having their basic need fulfilled. The problems that they explained was beyond giving education to their children. They have to pass through the terrain that I just explained for fulfilling any basic need which includes the raw materials for their daily food. They climb up and down this hill for an average of 3 times a day for their livelihood. For them to think about education looks like a distant ask.
We proposed some ideas to overcome their basic issues and have their children educated. Mr. Pandi kannan and the school headmaster Mr. Vijayaraj are doing a commendable job to make sure that the children from this place are getting their basic education. We shared our willingness to offer any help which would help the children from this area to get their education.
As a part of it we have taken up a project to help get the school where these children are studying solar based electricity at a small level to start with. The school is without electricity as of today and it is a residential government school for Tribal children. This is under review currently and we will raise funds for this project once it gets approved. We are also reviewing a student from a nearby village to raise fund for his college education currently. Both these causes are in review and we are having a lot of children in line who would need our help to complete their education. Aalayam along with all of you is looking forward for this opportunity to help provide education for these children and help them realize their dreams.
Once I reached back home I was dead tired for the next two days and my heart was with those children and people who are travelling that route on a daily basis multiple times. I thanked God for all that I have in my life considering what those people were going through and it gave us (Aalayam) more reason to explore more areas where we can be of some help to our fellow Indians and make this nation march forward!
Signing off with these group photos which would remain in our thoughts for the days to come!
In view of the “Daan Utsav” our champions are visiting a tribal village, Chinnur Colony in Kodaikanal district on 18th Oct 2014. During this visit we are interacting with around 25 children to understand their problems and see how we can help them in their education. As part of our trip we are collecting used clothes for the above mentioned children. We kindly request you to donate any used clothes for the children aged between 5 to 15 years and we will be happy to deliver it on behalf of you!
Please contact the below volunteers for Chennai drop-off:
Bhaskar K – 9600100205 (Arumbakkam)
Krishna Prasad – 9840770156 (Mogappair)
Shanmugan – 9444505152 (Maduravoyal)
If anyone outside of Chennai wish to donate, please courier it to our office address: Aalayam Foundation No.114/3, Ponniamman Koil Street, Sri Mahalakshmi Nagar, Numbal, Chennai, India – 600077 For any questions, please contact us at 044-32000780 or info@aalayam.org
On our 1st anniversary, we are very proud to announce that from now supporters can donate to the cause using your credit/debit card or net banking. This feature was requested by many supporters and it will help our supporters to donate quickly and seamlessly. With this update when a payment is successfully supporters can see their payment information immediately.
We have partnered with PayUMoney to process payments online and currently integrated their PayU button. As a payment processor they charge us a percentage (approx. 2.5 to 3%) of every single transaction as service fee to process payments online. As per 100% to beneficiary policy, Aalayam team is going pay the service fee on behalf of the donors.
One of Aalayam’s volunteer and also Vazhai organization’s volunteer Mrs.Thamarai Selvi informed Aalayam about the “Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF)” gathering which had happened in Chennai on September 21st.
Since I was in Chennai that day I had an opportunity to participated on behalf of Aalayam Foundation.
It was a wonderful experience.
Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF) conducted the programs from morning to evening that day.
Lot of wonderful people have participated in the event and the energy was high till the evening sessions.
Hats off to all the members of Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF) and other volunteers.
They gave us an opportunity to speak about Aalayam.
In Summary I had talked about What Aalayam does and How do we operate.
After the meeting I spoke with a school headmaster gave our information and also talked to an employee of child labor prevention welfare organization who are doing a wonderful job is that space also given our information so that we both can work together towards the common goals of providing education for the people who are not fortunate as we are.
End of the day this meet once again stresses the importance of NGO’s working together so that each others mission’s can be achieved with support from one another.
Provide safety for the Kids. For example, Look at how many kids are being kidnapped, travel to schools in unsafe environment, etc., The enrollments will go up if parents know that their kids are safe. Revolutionize the education system from Linear, conformity, Industrial model to Organic or Agricultural model by providing the right kind of environment so that students can blossom according to their capabilities. Everyone has their own time to blossom. – Quotes from “Ken Robinson – Ted Talk” Survey the public find out the top 10 issues by district & State and address them. One size may not fit all. Execute the existing schemes without corruption. TV content regulations. Too much violence, non suitable contents for kids delivered through Television. Programs in the evening to be censored to suit children. Teach Soft skills in school curriculum. Include more sports, Quiet time (Know yourself).
Train the Teachers to encourage students for creativity & Innovation. Train the teachers frequently.
Creativity is as important as Literacy – Designing the syllabus based on this theme will help students to know their full potential. Education should not be a competition. School ranking system needs to be overhauled. Students come to school first time joyfully, the system divides them says only top 5 or 10 are fit for the society. What about the rest?
