1. Introduction

Many children fail to enroll in primary education. This is particularly a problem for marginalized children such as orphans, children who are affected by HIV/AIDS, disabled children, and children of very poor families especially girls. ESCUP tries to address this problem through interventions such as providing scholarships to poor students, remediation for slow learners, physical rehabilitation for disabled children, general and cultural life skills and other interventions which help children better understand their own local culture. However, there is also a need for schools to be more proactive in identifying children at risk of not enrolling in primary schools.

2. Primary Objectives

• To identify school-going age children (6 to 12 years old), who have not enrolled in or dropped out from primary school education and seek possible interventions to help these children to enter primary school (school tries to reach children rather than waiting for children to reach school).
• To promote participation of local communities in supporting inclusive education as part of CFS program and develop closer working relationship between school and communities.

3. Target group

Child Seeking School or Mapping activities are implemented in all ESCUP supported schools which included this intervention in their Cluster School Improvement Plan. Local community members, Commune Education For All commissions (CEFACs), School Support Committees (SSCs), School Management Board, classroom teachers, and grade 5/6 students can cooperate to identify children at risk in their coverage area and to follow up on these cases.

4. Information on implementation

There are different ways to identify children at risk of not enrolling in primary school:

1. Look into the lists of students that received a scholarship last school year.
2. Look into the list of students that participated in life skill activities last year.
3. Look into the list of children that have been frequently absent in the past year. Frequent absence means that a student is absent five days or more per month.
4. Look into the list of children that faced prolonged absenteeism in the past year. Prolonged absence means that a student is absent twenty or more days in a row.
5. Look into the list of children that dropped out in the past year. Drop out means that a student stopped to learn and did not return to school during that school year.
6. Visit households where children live and encourage them to enroll this school year.
• Classroom teachers are responsible for collecting the 2003-2004 data for the first five points mentioned above.
• Grade 5 and 6 students (or Student Association) with support of CEFAC/SSCs and school teachers will do a small survey (not later than the first week of November).
• The information collected by the teachers and the survey results from grade 5/6 students will be incorporated into one map that indicates where the children at risk of not enrolling this school year live.
• Local community members will cooperate to identify appropriate CFS interventions that could be used to allow these children to enroll primary school.

5. Implementation workshops at school level

• Step one (1 day): Orientation on general conceptual information and how to draft mapping and assign task for the next step activity.
• (Home work in between step 1 & 2 to collect/verify information in village)
• Step two (half day):
• Discuss findings and finalize map
• Action plan to follow up with families at risk

6. Resources Needed

• Surveyors - $1 per day per person x 5 days
• Survey
• Stationery for mapping - $10 per school
• Travel money