UDDYAM Initiative in Assam: Whistle Campaign Aims to Boost School Attendance and Reduce Dropout Rates

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Following an approval from the PAB (Project Approval Board) of the Union Ministry of Education, the Samagra Shiksha, Assam (SSA) has taken a cue from the Jharkhand Education Department’s model to arrest the school dropout rate in Assam.

The SSA has written a letter to eight district mission coordinators to implement UDDYAM, a new initiative prevalent in Jharkhand for increasing students’ attendance.

Under this intervention, the SSA will provide a “whistle” to each elementary school student in some select blocks of eight districts that have high school dropout rates and more irregular students in their attendance. It is being implemented on the basis of this intervention, ‘blow the whistle, summon pupils to school’ (Prayas – siti bajao school bulao). Each of the students will blow the whistle as a mark of calling other students staying nearby to go to school. This ‘intervention’ initiated by the Department of School Education and Literacy of Jharkhand scripted a success story in the North Indian state.

The eight target districts of this intervention are Barpeta, Cachar, Dhubri, Dima-Hasao, Goalpara, Nagaon, Nalbari, and West Karbi Anglong. The SSA letter said that the issue of school dropouts and poor attendance in Assam also remains a significant challenge in the state’s education system.

According to the UDISE+ report of 2024-25, the annual average school dropout rates in primary and upper primary levels in Assam are 3.8 (boys 4.7 and girls 2.9) and 5 (boys 7 and girls 3.2), respectively.

Also Read: Assam: SSA orders monitoring of smart classes, ICT labs