Ahmedabad, Jun 20 (PTI) The 17th edition of 'Shala Praveshotsav', an annual drive to enroll students in Class 1 in Gujarat, will be launched by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on June 23 from a government-run primary school in Banaskantha's Vadgam taluka.

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For the first time, it has been decided to send vice chancellors of various state universities to villages as part of the three-day school enrollment drive being held between June 23 and 25, state Education Minister Jitu Vaghani said on Monday.

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"As many as 356 Class I officers, including 84 IAS and 24 IPS officials, along with state ministers, MLAs and MPs will remain present in government-run primary schools across the state to encourage newly inducted students during these three days," the minister said.

Vaghani said the 'Shala Praveshotsav' was started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2003 when he was the state's CM, with the main aim being ensuring maximum enrollment in schools.

"On the second day of the drive, the CM will be present in a school in Nizar taluka of Tapi district to enroll students in a primary school. Officials and elected representatives would cover nearly 32,000 government primary schools during this three-day drive," Vaghani told reporters.

These officials and elected representatives will also take part in taluka-level review meetings every evening, while separate meetings will be held with teachers to discuss issues pertaining to learning loss, attendance and infrastructure requirement, Vaghani informed.

"Gujarat's dropout ration was 64.48 per cent in 1990-91. Thanks to this drive, that ratio came down to just 3.7 per cent in 2020-21. Similarly, gross enrollment ratio has gone up to 99.02 in 2020-21 from 95.65 per cent in 2004-05," said Vaghani.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)