Jharkhand Government Schools Aims to Increase School Attendance with ‘Siti Bajao’ Initiative

April 2, 2024, 10:48 a.m.

Government schools in Jharkhand are ushering in a novel approach to tackle absenteeism with the introduction of the "Prayas-Siti Bajao, School Bulao'' initiative. The endeavour, which is initiated by the Department of School Education and Literacy in Jharkhand translates to "Blow the whistle to summon students," aims to boost attendance by involving the local community. This was adopted based on the success story of the “Siti Bajao, Upasthithi Badao” initiative in a government school in Tangrain of East Singhbhum district.

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The mastermind behind this venture, Arvind Tiwary, HM in charge, said that the ‘Blow Whistle’ campaign evoked good responses from students. Taking into account the constructive response to this, the Education and Literacy Department has decided to launch this initiative in all government schools across the state and has even directed the authorities to upload photos of students blowing the whistle on social media with hashtag #seethibajao and the impact was noteworthy. Even the school dropouts were motivated and started attending classes.

This initiative mainly targets the students who skipped classes for more than a month. Students are divided into groups to analyse, mark and find out the absentees. A school management committee member, a teacher and a group leader are responsible for this. After finding the target group, the group leader along with other students visits villages and blows whistles in the morning to alert students to get ready for school. Earlier, Mr Tiwary had administered many innovative ideas like ‘egg challenge’ , one-page handwriting everyday, movie shows for students as rewards for memorisation of tables etc, and has evoked positive responses. By incorporating the "Siti Bajao" initiative, Jharkhand's government schools are leveraging a collective effort to prioritise education and foster an environment conducive to regular school attendance.