Agartala, Jan 2 (IANS): The Tripura government has launched a special drive to provide education to every child, including those who are differently abled and do not attend school, an official said on Monday.

"On Sunday we launched the week-long 'Vidyalaya Chalo Abhiyan' to bring every single child aged 6-14-years to schools," Tripura's elementary education department director Uttam Kumar Chakma told IANS.

He said: "The differently-abled children unable to attend schools, our volunteers would go to their homes to provide teaching. This week-long programme was launched under the centrally-sponsored Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan."

Chakma said that in a recent household survey, the education department officials found that only 586 children across Tripura were left out from receiving formal education before the beginning of this year's academic session from Monday.

"The elementary education department has appointed 52 observers to oversee the 'Vidyalaya Chalo Abhiyan' and 50 volunteers to provide home-based education to the differently-abled children who are unable to come to schools," he added.

Currently, Tripura has 3,700 schools for 569,512 students up to the 8th standard and the literacy rate stands at 96.82 per cent.