Gandhinagar, June 25 (IANS) Gujarat’s Education Department has prevented more than 1.67 lakh children identified as being at risk of dropping out from leaving school and has brought over 90,000 former dropouts back into classrooms through technology-driven interventions, according to state government data released on Thursday.
The figures were highlighted as Gujarat launched the 24th edition of its annual ‘Shala Praveshotsav’ (School Enrolment Drive), a programme that the state government says has contributed to a sustained decline in school dropout rates over the past two decades.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Monday inaugurated the statewide enrolment campaign from B.N. High School in Vadnagar.
The programme was originally launched by the then Gujarat Chief Minister and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the aim of ensuring that every child eligible for primary education is enrolled in school and that awareness about education reaches all parts of the state.
The state government has set a target of reducing school dropout rates to near zero across primary, secondary and higher education levels.
To support that objective, the Education Department has introduced an Artificial Intelligence-based Early Warning System (EWS) at the Vidya Samiksha Kendra in Gandhinagar to identify students who may be at risk of leaving school before they drop out.
According to the state government, the system helped prevent 1,67,446 students identified as being at risk from discontinuing their education during the previous year.
The AI-based platform analyses a range of factors, including student records, attendance patterns, academic performance, assessment outcomes, age, gender and disability status, to identify potential dropout risks among students from classes 1 to 8.
The system also considers broader factors linked to schools and families.
These include the type of school attended, classroom structure, infrastructure facilities, household economic conditions, migration patterns, parental attitudes towards education, family size and demographic information.
By analysing these indicators, the system generates alerts that allow authorities to intervene before students leave school.
The Education Department said regular absenteeism, poor academic performance, health-related issues, physical disabilities and behavioural concerns are among the key factors associated with a higher likelihood of dropping out.
This year, the Early Warning System has identified 1,18,234 students who may be at risk of leaving school, enabling officials to undertake preventive measures and targeted interventions aimed at keeping them in the education system.
Alongside the AI initiative, the state has expanded the use of its Child Tracking System (CTS), an online platform developed by the Education Department and Samagra Shiksha to monitor the educational progress of students across Gujarat.
The CTS maintains records for more than one crore students enrolled in over 54,000 schools across the state, tracking children from Balvatika through primary education.
The platform is used to monitor enrolment, attendance, migration and academic progress, while also helping ensure that eligible students receive the benefits of government education schemes.
According to the state government, 90,212 children who had previously dropped out of school were re-enrolled in education through the Child Tracking System this year.
Officials said the CTS is now being integrated with the AI-based Early Warning System, allowing student attendance, learning progress and other indicators to be analysed together to identify potential dropout cases at an earlier stage.
The state government said the combined use of the two systems forms part of its broader effort to ensure that children complete their schooling and remain within the education system throughout their academic journey.
–IANS
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