Guwahati: With an estimated 4.52 lakh out-of-school children aged 14-18 in Assam, Samagra Shiksha has launched the statewide “Shiksha Yatra – From Challenges to Aspirations” survey to identify, track and mainstream out-of-school children (OoSC), dropouts and students who have been absent for long periods. The exercise will also help plan open-schooling support for more than 12,000 children.The door-to-door survey, being conducted from Aug 20 to Sept 23 across school catchment areas, involves school management committees (SMCs), education volunteers, district quality managers and other field-level functionaries. Officials said each identified child would receive a child-specific action plan for enrolment, mainstreaming, placement in special training centres or open schooling, as appropriate.Aayush Garg, mission director, Samagra Shiksha, Assam, said, “The education volunteer network had already reached nearly 1.11 lakh children to facilitate their return to school and that a systematic mechanism had now been put in place to bring out-of-school children into formal education.”Assam education minister Ranoj Pegu stressed the need to identify every child outside the formal education system through accurate household-level surveys and coordinated action. Addressing a one-day orientation programme for surveyors at Jyoti Bishnu Auditorium in Khanapara on Friday, he urged stakeholders to treat the exercise as a mission rather than merely a data-collection exercise, and to ensure that every identified child was supported to return to and continue their education.PLFS Survey 2025 estimates that 4,52,321 children aged 14-18 are out of school in Assam. To address the gap, the state has proposed open-schooling support for 5,273 children in 2025-26 and 6,953 in 2026-27, underscoring the need to identify and reintegrate eligible children into education.Surveyors will be trained to use Survey App for identification, verification and data entry. Special attention will be given to children affected by floods and other circumstances that have disrupted their education.National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is involved in the initiative and provides an alternative pathway for children who have missed formal schooling or certification. Against a target of nearly 7,000 children for the 2026-27 batch, around 900 have already been enrolled.
