Assam records highest school level dropout rate in India

February 7: Union Human Resource Development Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal presented a report in Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The report has brought to the surface some striking information regarding the dismal scenario in the educational sector of the country. As per this report, Assam has registered the highest school dropout rate in primary and secondary classes in India.

The dropout rates in schools is the highest in Assam, at both primary and secondary levels. The dropout rate in Assam at primary level was 10.1% in 2017-18 followed by Arunachal Pradesh(8.1), Mizoram(8), Uttar Pradesh(8) and Tamil Nadu(5.9) At secondary level, Assam’s dropout rate was 33.7% followed by Bihar(32), Odisha(28.3), Tripura(27.2) and Karnataka(24.3).

From the view point of gender break out dropout rate at primary level, the dropout rate among boys in primary schools in Assam was 11.2%, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (10), Mizoram (8.6), Uttar Pradesh (7.2) and Odisha (6). For girls at primary level, the highest five dropout rates were in Assam (8.9), Mizoram (7.4), Uttar Pradesh (7.1), Arunachal Pradesh (6.1) and Tamil Nadu (6).

At the secondary level too, the dropout rates were highest in Assam at 33.7% between 2017-18 followed by Bihar, Odisha, Tripura, Karnataka. At secondary level, the dropout rates for boys were 32.1% in Assam, followed by Bihar (30.3), Odisha (28.7), Tripura (27.1) and Karnataka (26.4). Among girls in secondary school, the highest five dropout rates were in Assam (35.2%), followed by Bihar (33.7), Odisha (27.8), Tripura (27.3) and Madhya Pradesh (24.2).

The Ministry of Human Resource Development said that the reasons for children dropping out include poverty and other economic reasons, poor health, using children for domestic as well as farm labour among a host of other issues. While on one hand, the Assam Government after conducting Gunotsav has claimed over all improvement of educational scenario at the school level but on the other, the report by MHRD provides a contrasting picture.