Secondary School Dropout Rates are Higher than the National Average

Secondary School Dropout Rates are Higher

Post Date: September 26, 2022

The central government has advised these states to take special measures to reduce the dropout rate. This information is available from the minutes of the meeting of the Project Approval Board (PAB) under the Ministry of Education on the “Total Education” program for the year 2022 and 2023. These meetings are held with various states from April to July.
West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar and Tripura are among more than a dozen states where the dropout rate at the secondary level was higher than the national average of 14.6 percent, according to the data.

Rapid return of school dropouts to mainstream schools

Secondary school dropout rate in Andhra Pradesh was 37.6 percent in 2019 to 2020, which declined to 8.7 percent in 2020 to 2021. PAB asked the state to continue its efforts to further reduce the dropout rate.
PAB has asked the Delhi government to speed up the process of bringing school education back into the mainstream. According to the document, the estimated number of children with special needs (CWSNs) enrolled in schools in Delhi during the relevant period was 61,051, of whom 67.5 per cent dropped out or could not be identified.

The new National Education Policy targets at the school level by 2030

According to PAB, in 2020-21, secondary dropout rate was 21.4 per cent in Bihar, 23.3 per cent in Gujarat, 23.8 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, 16.04 per cent in Odisha, 16.6 per cent in Jharkhand, 26 per cent in Tripura and 26 per cent in Karnataka. 16.6 percent was recorded.
According to sources, the government wants to achieve 100% Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) at the school level by 2030 as targeted in the new National Education Policy and considers dropouts as a bottleneck.

Recent Nations Children’s Fund survey

A recent survey conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund said that 34 percent of girls drop out of school because of domestic work and 26 percent because of marriage. According to UNICEF, it has also been observed in many places that after leaving school, children start working with their families as laborers or cleaning people’s houses.

In Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, school dropout rate at secondary school level

According to the document, 12.6 per cent students dropped out at the secondary level in Uttar Pradesh in 2020 to 2021, an average of 11.8 per cent for boys and 13.3 per cent for girls.
In 10 districts of West Bengal the dropout rate at secondary level is more than 15 percent.

School dropout rates at secondary level in Assam, Nagaland and Kerala:
In Assam in 2020 to 2021, 19 districts registered a dropout rate of over 31 percent at the secondary level. In Nagaland, the rate was over 30 percent in eight districts. The dropout rate at secondary level was 7.2 percent in Kerala, 8.42 percent in Uttarakhand and 10.18 percent in Goa.

Teacher-parent level meetings should be held in any situation

Dropout students should be identified and informed by visiting them home because sometimes the test results are not good or family circumstances also cause them to drop out of school.

Former Secretary of School Education and Literacy Department said that ‘mapping’ of children out of school education should be done at village panchayat and ward level. He also said that schools should organize teacher-parent level meetings at least once a month to spread awareness about this important issue.