A class is in progress at a bridge course centre near Hyderabad. Telegraph picture

Balangir, April 26: As part of Sarba Sikshya Abhijan (SSA), Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu governments have teamed up with Western Orissa Migration Network (WOMN), to ensure the enrolment of more than 700 children of migrant labours from the region in schools.

The children have been enrolled in 20 non-residential bridge course centres (NRBC) attached in the worksite schools and primary schools of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

According to information available with WOMN, 431 children of brick kiln workers have been admitted to 14 schools in Tamil Nadu while 340 children have been enrolled in seven Andhra Pradesh schools. Twenty-four volunteer teachers from Orissa have been appointed to teach them in the non residential bridge course centres in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Thematic head of Aide Et Action- Migration Information Resource Centre (South Asia) Umi Daniel said that thousands of kids travel with their parents to the brick kilns of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. “They normally leave their villages in October and return only by June which spans a whole academic year. Thousand of kids who travel with their parents to the worksites are thus denied of school education,” Daniel said.

The concept of the bridge course is that such children should not miss out on education. “Out of the several thousands children we have managed to reach only to a few hundred. In future, we will expand our area and would try to ensure the enrolment of more children,” he said.

Daya Sagar Padhan, who is coordinating with the teachers, told The Telegraph over phone from Chennai that they go to the migrant labours’ worksites in the month of January. “As soon we reach here, we visit the brick kilns and make a survey about the number of families and the number of children which takes around 10-15 days. Then we gather the children who are school dropouts and enrol them in the nearest primary schools. If the nearest school is more than one kilometre away from the worksite, then we arrange to build a shed near the worksite which is known as a worksite school. We now have 14 such worksite schools in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The governments of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have given recognition to such schools,” Pradhan said.

WOMN coordinator Sanjaya Mishra said that dialogue was on with Sarba Sikshya Abhijaan (SSA) authorities in Orissa. “Unlike Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, Orissa has not been doing anything in this regard. We hope that things will improve in future. We recruit the teachers here and also collect the surplus text books from schools here which are sent to Chennai and Hyderabad where most of the bridge course centres exist. We also collect the question papers from the schools here and sent it to Chennai and Hyderabad which are used there during the examination. We then tie up with the SSA there and arrange school leaving certificates for the children at the end of the migration season,” Mishra said.