School Attendance Tracking as Early Warning System of Child troubles & timely support

Last Updated: 24 April 2024

Launched in April 2022, this system is currently deployed across all 1070 Delhi Government schools tracking attendance of 19 lakh students in real time[1]
-- Led by Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR)

Early warning system has succeeded in supporting, nudging and bringing ~40,000 children back to school in last 1 year, as of June 2023[2]

The Early Warning System predicts students’ family troubles using attendance as an indicator, enabling timely remedial interventions for the same[3]

How does this system work

Below children are flaggeed as ‘at-risk’ students
-- Absent for 7+ days consecutively
-- or whose attendance dropped below 33% (Absent for 20+ days out of 30 working days)

April 2023 - February 2024: 6.67 lakh students were marked 'at risk'[4]

Once students are ‘detected’ by the system[4:1]

  • SMS is sent to the parent or guardian
  • Phone calls to the parent or guardian are made by ‘associates’ at a call centre hired by the DCPCR
  • Home visits are made after flagging by call center
    e.g. severe cases like child marriage, parental death**, corporal punishment or any other reasons

-- Jan-Mar 2023: 45,000 home visits have been undertaken to prevent children from dropping out[4:2]

Success stories

A daily SMS to their parents about child's absence helped reduce bunking by students (mainly adolescent boys) by almost 45%

  • In 2022, 16-year-old Priya from Jaitpur and 16-year old Divya from Tughalakabad in Delhi did not attend school for 12 consecutive days
    • They were not the only ones – 3,629 other children from Delhi government schools were also absent for 12 days consecutively in the same period
  • Their parents did not see any point in continuing their education as
    • Priya had developed a breast cyst
    • Divya was set to be married off

IMPACT

With timely interventions from DCPCR & AAP Delhi Govt

  • Priya had her surgery in July 2022, she is now healthy and attending school regularly
  • Divya recorded 100% attendance in December 2022 and appeared for her board examinations in April 2023. She is looking forward to becoming a business-woman – we have full faith that she will

@NAkilandeswari

REFERENCES:

  1. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/education/news/dcpcrs-early-warning-system-helps-students-resume-format-education/articleshow/95142761.cms ↩︎

  2. https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/human-development/school-absences-as-an-early-warning-system.html ↩︎

  3. https://dcpcr.delhi.gov.in/dcpdcr/early-warning-sysytem ↩︎

  4. https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/in-past-year-how-a-tracking-system-red-flagged-absence-of-6-lakh-kids-at-delhi-govt-schools-9244066/ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎