The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday directed the State government to train attendance authorities under the Karnataka RTE Rules to ensure they are equipped to enforce the law to provide compulsory education to children aged 6 to 14 by bringing out-of-school children back into the education system.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice H.T. Narendra Prasad issued the direction during the hearing of a PIL petition, which was suo motu initiated by the High Court in 2013 on the issue of a large number of out-of-school children.

During the hearing, amicus curiae and senior counsel K.N. Phaneendra pointed out that though 70,116 students were out of school in the survey conducted by the Department of Public Instruction last December, those falling in the age group of 6 to 14 were only 57,334. Of which, at present, only 16,853 are said to be out of school and 31.1% of them are children of migrant labourers. It was pointed out to the Bench that the Chief Secretary had found lapse on the part of attendance authorities in recent years and had decided to provide training to ensure that they function effectively.

Noticing that the RTE rules make it mandatory for attendance authorities to bring out-of-school children and their parents before the child welfare committee constituted under the Juvenile Justice Act after all attempts to convince the parents to compulsorily send children to schools, the Bench said that attendance authorities shall exercise this power to ensure that no child is out of school.

The Bench adjourned further hearing till September 4, while directing the government to submit a status report.