The Irula tribe of Sekarimedu in Pennagaram, Dharmapuri, lives in a time zone far removed from ours: its members reside in caves and eke out a living selling forest produce, honey and wild hens.

When the District Primary Education Project (DPEP) officials arrived here for the first time with the intention of setting up an educational base, they were totally at sea.

Today, the area is witnessing a transformation: One boy has appeared for his Standard X examinations, and the DPEP has started yet another of it's 93-odd schools.

DPEP State Project Director P Soundararajan said the area comprises 20 to 25 families, and surveys revealed there were 80 to 100 children of school-going age who did not enjoy any of the facilities their counterparts in other villages, towns and cities did. The tribals who spoke fluent Tamil went upto higher terrains to avoid the elephants that sometimes came in large numbers.

Soundararajan said the transformation could be gauged from the fact that when a World Bank team on a tour of a village asked a father what he would do if his son refused to go to school, the reply was, ``I will break his teeth and send him running to school''.

The DPEP projects, conducted in seven districts, have ensured a sharp fall in school drop out rates since its inception in 1994. The dropout rate in Dharmapuri, for instance, which was 23 per cent in 1995-96, fell to 20 per cent in 1996-97 and 18 per cent in 1997-98.

In Tiruvannamalai, the drop-out rate has plummeted to 12.7 per cent in 1998-99, while in Cuddalore, it is 12.4 per cent and 15.4 per cent in Villupuram. In 1998-99, Perambalur had a dropout rate of 12.9 per cent, 17.1 per cent in Ramanathapuram and a little over 10.8 per cent in Pudukottai.

How does the project team go about its task? Initially, says Soundararajan, house-to-house surveys are conducted inareas where the need for a school is felt. The school-going population is identified and details of prospective students collected.

Teachers and headmasters then go from door to door, coaxing parents to send their children to school. A School Development Plan provides the history of schools in the area and the dropout rate. Schools are then set up for students who drop out: most do so when they are in Standard II or III.

With a target of universalisation of primary education and that students from ages five to 10 should be in school, the DPEP districts have a Privilege-Level Committee with a District Elementary Education Officer, who is the programme co-ordinator, to guide them. There is also the Block Resource Centre with one supervisor and three teachers who provide counselling and guidance.

Soundararajan said an awareness campaign was now being carried out, through its Village-Level Committee, in all the DPEP districts -- especially among parents of disabled children, who showed great reluctance insending special children to school.