With the coronavirus outbreak forcing thousands of students to discontinue their studies across Maharashtra, the state government plans to launch a mobile application to track such dropouts. The app is a part of the state’s plan to resolve the ‘out-of-school’ challenge and bring the students back to the education fold, said education minister Varsha Gaikwad on Thursday.

Amid the new normal of online schooling, alarming concerns are being raised over students dropping out of the education system owing to the lack of facilities to ensure digital learning. While access to smart devices and the internet has been a major factor, financial crunch faced by parents with lost jobs and migration for survival have been other stumbling blocks.