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New Delhi : The dropout rate among girl students in school has seen a sharp decline in the past four years, the sharpest of which has been at the secondary level — among those aged between 11 and 14 years — reveals government data. Two separate sets of data shared by the government in Parliament, from 2017-18 to 2020-21, reveals that fewer girls have dropped out of schools over these years.

Analysis of the data shared by the minister of state (MoS) for education, Annapurna Devi, in parliament in April this year and on Wednesday, reveals that the dropout rate of girls at the secondary level (Class 9-10) has gone down by nearly five per cent — from 18.4 per cent of girl students dropping out in 2017-18 to 13.7 per cent in 2020-21.

A similar decline — though not so sharp — has also been seen in the dropout rate of girl students at the primary (Classes 1-5) and upper primary (classes 6-8) levels. While the dropout rate has gone down from 3.3 per cent of girl students in 2017-18 to 0.7 per cent in 2020-21, at the upper primary level, the decline in dropout rate for girls has been from 5.6 per cent in 2017-18 to 2.6 per cent in 2020-21. Graphic: Soham Sen | ThePrint Interestingly, the decline in dropout has been the sharpest in the secondary level, which often sees the highest dropouts, Various reports have cited early marriage and the burden of household chores as reasons for the higher dropout rate among girls at this age.

1. However, the dropout rate among girls in secondary school saw a decline of nearly five per cent from 2017-18 and 2020-21.
2. Annapurna Devi has credited the education ministry’s Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan — a school education scheme focusing on holistic education for children — for the decline in dropout rates among girl students.

Also read : Identify drop-outs by April, offer teaching resources & financial aid: Modi govt tells schools
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What is the dropout rate in India schools?

More young children dropped out of school in 2021-22, but girl students up, says ministry report New Delhi: The dropout rate of young children attending Classes 1 to 8 has almost doubled in a year, latest statistics by the Ministry of Education revealed.

This means that more young children left school mid-way this year as compared to last year. The report, however, showed that the dropout rate for older children has come down from the previous year. This data has been brought to the fore by the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) Plus 2021-22 report, released Thursday.

It is a comprehensive study that provides information about enrollment and dropout rates of school students, about the number of teachers in schools and information on other infrastructural facilities like toilets, buildings and electricity. As per the figures, the dropout rate at the primary level (Classes 1 to 5) has gone up to 1.5 percent in the academic year 2021-22, up from 0.8 percent in 2020-21.

1. At the upper primary level (Classes 6-8), the dropout rate has gone up to 3 percent in 2021-22, compared to 1.9 percent in the year 2020-21.
2. In fact, the dropout rate is the highest in three years at the upper primary level.
3. The report from 2019-20 shows the dropout rate was 2.6 percent, which went down to 1.9 percent in 2020-21 and then shot back up again to 3 percent in 2021-22.

In all three years, the dropout rate for girls has been higher than that of boys at this level. Dropout rate refers to the percentage of children leaving school mid-way, pointing to attrition in a classroom, which could be due to various reasons, including personal.
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How many out of school girls are there in India?

Out-of-school girls in India: a study of socioeconomic-spatial disparities Despite numerous established benefits of girls’ education, globally large numbers of girls are out-of-school (OOS). This poses challenges to achieving quality education (SDG 4) and gender equality (SDG 5) by 2030.

• In India, there are socioeconomic and spatial disparities also.
• The latest National Sample Survey (2017–18) data provides an opportunity to explore these issues.
• We used the unit-level data of 117,115 children (5–17 years).
• Our multivariate logistic regression analysis shows that the likelihood of OOS girls is at least 16% higher than that of boys.

The probability declines at every stage of income quintile from ‘poorest’ to the ‘richest’. The likelihood in urban areas is almost 35% lower than the rural areas. Compared to the upper castes the probability is higher for the backward castes. Compared to Hindus, the likelihood is higher among Muslims but lower among Christian and Sikh children.

1. Our three-layer cross-tabulation reveals that poor Scheduled-Tribes girls are the most vulnerable.
2. The spatial plotting shows that the majority of the vulnerable regions belong to a few states viz.
3. Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Gujarat.
4. Therefore, we argue for localized solutions for girls of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in different regions.

The relevance of this study also arises from the fact that there might be a further increase in the number of OOS girls due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ANOVA test suggests that there might be a shift of girls from private to government schools also, which calls for strengthening the public education system to prevent the problem from aggravating further.

1. Education has both the intrinsic value of being an end in itself and the instrumental value of achieving other desired goals in life.
2. Moreover, girls’ education has wider social benefits.
3. Girls’ education has its impacts beyond the girl herself, as the entire community and the country also get benefitted.

Girls’ education contributes to economic growth through an increase in productivity (Abu-Ghaida & Klassan, ; Birdsall et al., ), reduction in the wage gap, and increase in the tax base (Schultz, ). It also leads to several social benefits such as a reduction in the incidence of child marriage and infant and maternal mortality (Hill & King, ; Jensen, ), declines in population growth by having fewer children and using smart reproductive health practices (Sperling & Winthrop, ; Kim, ).

Moreover, educated girls are more likely to participate in politics and make concrete changes in the community compared to uneducated girls (Bertini & Ceretti, ). That is why investment in girls’ education is considered to be one of the best investments a country can make to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty (Summers, ).

WHO’S SMARTER? | College Dropouts vs Harvard Students

However, despite various benefits of girls’ education, there exist lower educational opportunities for girls in different parts of the world, and a large number of girls remain out of school (OOS). Globally, for the school year ending in 2018, about 258 million children and youth are OOS, which represents one-sixth of the global population of the school-going age group (UIS, ).

1. According to the report, worldwide there is a mild decline in gender parity in terms of OOS rates, but, inequalities persist at regional and country levels.
2. Most of the OOS girls are located in Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Southern Asia.
3. Within South Asia, because of its country size, India is the home for the largest share of OOS girls (UNICEF, ).

India has traveled a long journey of inclusive educational development in the last 75 years since independence. Still, this issue poses a serious challenge to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong opportunities for all” as well as SDG 5 to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” by 2030.

• There are both household-level or demand-side factors like poverty, parental education, gender disparity, social exclusion, disability, conflict, displacement or other emergencies, etc.
• And supply-side factors like distant location of schools, lack of qualified teachers, drinking water, latrines, and other facilities or a different language of teaching than spoken at home, etc.

contributing to high numbers of OOS children (Sarkar, ). Children not attending school are generally unaccounted in school records, and therefore become ‘invisible’ and often not considered in policy and decision-making (UNICEF, ). According to the report, the lack of data and information on these most excluded children make it even more difficult to reach them.

According to UNICEF () in South Asia, these children are mostly with disabilities, doing child labor, from poor families of rural areas or urban slums, living in emergency settings, and mostly girls. Various reasons have been cited in the existing literature for gender discrimination in education and why girls remain OOS in the world as well as in India.

Girls face pro-male bias within-household allocation of educational expenditure through two channels: a) enrolling sons and not daughters in the secondary school age group, and b) sending sons to private schools and daughters to the fee-free government schools (Azam & Kingdon, ).

1. Gender discrimination in different forms e.g.
2. Access to learning resources, access to free time to devote to learning activities, and cultural attitudes, get translated into gender inequality in learning outcomes (White et al., ).
3. All these get translated into more number of OOS girls compared to boys.

Gender discrimination is further interlinked with household characteristics like caste (Kelly et al., ), educational background of parents, household wealth, and opinions (Kingdon, ; Mohanty & Rammohan, ; Sahoo, ). Moreover, Lancaster et al. () found pro-male gender bias concerning educational expenditure to be stronger in the more economically backward regions of India.

In this background, the objectives of this study are to explore the recent situation of the extent of the gender gap in terms of OOS children in India, identify the most vulnerable girls, and where are they located spatially? The latest National Sample Survey (NSS) (2017–18) data provides an opportunity to explore these issues.

The precise research questions of this study are the following:

1. 1. To what extent gender and other socioeconomic backgrounds are significant determinants of OOS children in India?
2. 2. Who are the most vulnerable girls across different socioeconomic classes?
3. 3. Where are the vulnerable regions in terms of the high probability of OOS girls located spatially?

The findings of this paper offer insights into relevant interventions to ensure SDG 4 and SDG 5 even with limited resources. The findings provide a direction to the Indian Government to prioritize particular socioeconomic classes in specific regions. However, a major limitation of the study is that, soon after the latest NSS data got publicly available, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world including India.

1. Within the short time taken to complete the analysis, various reports started coming in regarding the negative impacts of temporary school closure and online mode of teaching, on girls’ education.
2. Therefore, although our results are based on the latest secondary data of the largest pan India level sample, they represent the gross underestimated status of OOS girls in the face of the ongoing crisis.

Therefore, we briefly discuss our results in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its future implications. The remainder paper has been organized in the following sections: Sect. “Conceptual framework” presents the conceptual framework. Section “Data and methodology” explains the data and methodology.

• Section “Results and findings” provides the results and findings.
• Section links the findings and discusses how the situation might get aggravated due to the present crisis, whereas Sect.
• Conclusions and recommendations”concludes with precise recommendations.
• Globally, there is no clear definition of OOS children.

The term loosely includes the children who either do not have access to a school in their community; or do not enroll despite the availability of a school; enroll but do not attend school, or drop out of the education system. As a part of UNICEF’s global initiative on OOS children, profiles of children, who are presently attending school but at the greatest risk of dropping out, have also been taken into account.

This is because for the slightest reason if they are pushed out from the education system, they are likely to become the OOS children of tomorrow. If these at-risk children can be identified and prevent them from dropping out, the scale of exclusion might diminish over time (UNICEF, ). In India, the figures for OOS children put out by different official sources show significant variations.

As per the survey of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), there were around 6.64 million OOS children in the age group of 6–13 years in 2014 (SRI-IMRB Report, ). Based on the 71st round (2014) of the NSS data, Pankaj and Mitra () found that there were 15.52 million OOS children in the age group of 6–14 years.

1. According to Bhatty et al.
2. A major reason behind this was the wide variation in the question posed.
3. For instance, the question asked by NSS was “how many children are not currently attending school,” whereas, the MHRD (SRI-IMRB) survey asked, “how many children are not enrolled in any school”.
4. Unfortunately, in India, there is a huge discrepancy in being enrolled and attending school.

Conceptually, there are various reasons behind the socioeconomic and spatial disparities of OOS children in a large country like India. Often these factors inflate existing gender inequality in education. Gender discrimination in education has remained for more than thousands of years in India, although the recent forces of modernization and globalization have curbed it to a limited extent (Munshi & Rosenweig, ).

The deep-rooted norm in Indian society is not to expect support from daughters (particularly the married ones), which results in less investment in the education of girls (Kaul, ). Bhatkal () found gender bias to increase with age, in the entire school-going age bracket. Regarding secondary education, Marphatia et al.

() argued that although it is particularly relevant for shaping sex differences in life trajectories, unfortunately, it is often traded off with a good marriage match for girls in India. The gendered division of labor within households often forces girls to take on household duties and care of younger siblings, which often keep them out of school (Kingdon, ; Rumberger & Lim, ; Chakraborti, ).

1. Poverty is undoubtedly one of the established major barriers to education (Jayachandran, ; Hati & Majumdar 2012; Hunt, ; Pramanik, ), particularly because education incurs a range of costs like school fees, uniforms, travel, and also the opportunity costs of sending a child to school (Tilak, ).
2. Work involvement/child labor with or without payment of the poor children is another crucial factor.

In India, girls are often involved in domestic and household-related duties, whereas boys are involved in agricultural labor either on their own or somebody else’s farms. According to Dubey et al. () the most important reason for boys to drop out of school is to take up jobs to supplement the family earning, whereas, for girls, it is the compulsion to participate in household work.

Seasonal migration of parents along with their children harms children’s education, because of the breaks or gaps in the study. However, parents permanently migrating to areas with better schooling facilities might increase the possibility of schooling for their children (Mitra, ). Rural–urban differences also impact the completion of education of the children.

Caste and other forms of social discrimination also play a major role in India. According to Balagopalan and Subrahmanian () discrimination against underprivileged social groups, resulting in push out rather than drop out of children. Tribal children often remain OOS because of cultural hindrances among other reasons.

1. When the language of instruction at school is not the children’s native tongue, especially in the earlier years, can act as an exclusionary process (Gautam, ; Pankaj et al., ).
2. Apart from the lack of proper disability-friendly infrastructure in schools, disabled children also face discrimination like considering disability a social taboo (Thurlow et al., ).

This often keeps specially-abled children out of school. The education of parents particularly mothers’ plays a major role in children’s education. Educated parents realize the importance of education and thus are often more willing to send their children to schools (Jayachandran, ; Dostie & Jayaraman, ; Hati & Majumdar 2012; Pramanik, ).

Female work participation also impacts children’s education. In families where mothers go to work and there is no one else to support, often the elder children look after younger siblings and do domestic chores (Jayachandran, ). Orphanhood or death of parents negatively impacts schooling, particularly of poor children.

The death of a mother increases domestic workload whereas the death of a single earning father is often linked to an increased likelihood of poverty and child labor (Hunt, ). Among spatial factors, common economic influences like gross state domestic products and state-level investment in education have often been found as significant aspects at the macro-level studies and village development variables at micro-level researches (Mitra, ).

• Other spatial factors are related to the accessibility of school-level infrastructure and resources e.g., rooms and boundary walls, availability of drinking water and toilets, etc.
• Which varies significantly across the states and districts (Kumar et al., ).
• There have been studies to spatially map and identify the hot spot of supply-side variables (Saleh & Balakrishnan, ) or map educational outcomes through indicators at the state level (Chatterjee & Mishra, ).

Socio-political conflicts and emergencies in different parts of India also play a major role in children’s education. Children caught up in conflict, politically fragile and emergencies often find difficulties remaining in school (Karam & Somokanta, ; Pankaj et al., ).

• Bhatty et al.
• Highlighted that the definition of “dropped out” children i.e.
• Whose names are struck off the school records on account of continuous absence for a while, varies significantly from state to state.
• This impacts the estimation of “dropped out” children.
• For example, if a child is absent for seven days continuously without any information would qualify as a “dropped out” child in Karnataka, and his/her name would be struck off the rolls; but this will happen in Gujarat only if the child is continuously absent for 90 days.

In Gujarat a child absents for 90 days over the whole year, but distributed in spurts (not continuous), would not be considered “dropped out” (Bhatty et al., ). This might include many seven days at a stretch! The conceptual framework has been summarized in Fig.

• Fig.1 Source : Conceptualized and prepared by the authors Conceptual Framework of OOS Girls in India.
• We used nationwide secondary data on ‘Household Social Consumption: Education in India’ as part of NSS’s 75th round (July 2017-June 2018) survey.
• The survey covered the whole of the Indian Union except the villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands due to difficulty to access.

The survey covered 113,757 households (64,519 in rural and 49,238 in urban areas) and 513,366 persons (305,904 in rural and 207,462 in urban areas respectively) (GoI, ). However, for our study, only a subgroup of 117,115 children in the age group of 5–17 years was extracted from the unit-level data.

• The justification for considering this age group is that this is the entire school-going age in India, and the national education policy 2020 of India talks about the universalization of school education for this entire age group.
• The sample size has been multiplied by the frequency weights (as per the formula provided in NSS) to estimate the total number of children in the country.

We followed a logistic regression analysis similar to Mitra (), which was used for exploring determinants of secondary education in India based on NSS 71 st round data. In the present study, the population or universe (children in the age bracket of 5–17 years) consist of three mutually exclusive groups – a) never attended school, b) attended school in the past but presently not attending or dropped out before completing secondary education, c) continuing education through either formal or informal mode.

• We defined the consolidation of the first two categories as OOS children, and estimated the following multivariate logistic regression: $$\mathrm \left(\frac _ } _ }\right)= _ + _ ^ ^ + _ ^ ^ + _ ^ ^ + _ ^ ^ + _ ^ ^ $$ where, \( _ \) is the probability of being OOS of an individual child.
• It makes the dependent variable binary, i.e.

it can take only two values, 1 for being OOS, and 0 for being in school. Among independent variables, our primary concern is gender dummy \( ^ \), \(i=\mathrm \), which takes two values, 1 for boys and 2 for girls respectively. Another independent variable of major concern is the economic class.

• Since NSS does not provide income data but the annual consumer expenditure instead, therefore we considered that as a proxy of household income.
• We generated the variable expenditure quintile as a proxy of economic class.
• Expenditure quintile dummy \( ^ \), \(j=\mathrm,\mathrm,5\) take 5 values poorest (1), poorer (2), middle (3), richer (4), richest (5).

Economic characteristic is also captured to some extent by rural–urban sectoral classification. Therefore, we incorporated a rural–urban dummy \( ^ \), \(k=\mathrm \), where 1 and 2 imply rural and urban sectors respectively. Among social characteristics, we included social groups and religions.

Social group dummy \( ^ \), \(l=\mathrm,\mathrm \) takes 4 values Scheduled Tribes (ST) (1), Scheduled Caste (SC) (2), Other Backward Class (OBC) (3), and General/Others (4). Religion dummy \( ^ \), \(m=\mathrm,3, 4\), takes four values for Hinduism (1), Islam (2), Christianity (3), and Sikhism (4).

We have considered only these four major religions since the population for other religions was negligible in the data set. Our hypothesis for the independent variables are: a) likelihood of being OOS is higher for girls compared to boys, b) probability of being OOS decreases with more household income, c) likelihood of being OOS is lower in urban areas, due to availability of better infrastructure, educational facilities, and positive peer pressure or bandwagon effect, d) probability of being OOS is lower in general caste compared to other disadvantaged social groups due to lack of access and exposure to education historically, and e) compared to dominant religion i.e.

Hinduism, the likelihood of being out of school is presumed to be higher in case of the minority religion Islam, and lower for Christianity due to historical reasons. To complement the findings of the logistic regression and capture the educational vulnerability overlapping with the socioeconomic disadvantage, we mapped the share of OOS children across socioeconomic classes.

We constructed a tree-shaped three-layer cross-tabulation with economic categories as first, social categories as second, and gender categories as the third layer respectively. The statistical analysis has been done using the software STATA13. We calculated the existing probability of being OOS, for total children, and girl children, respectively.

The ratio of the above two probabilities gave the relative probability of girls being OOS. To visualize the data spatially, NSS-region wide map was prepared. The NSS region is the spatial unit that has been demarcated based on NSS methodology, which divides 36 states and Union Territories of India into 88 NSS regions (Fig.).

All the regions have been digitized using QGIS 3.8 software. The probability of being OOS has been spatially plotted as per these regions using the choropleth technique with five categories such as: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high, depicting the best to worst classification.

1. Similarly, the relative probability of girl children being OOS has been categorized as lowest, lower, almost equal, higher, and highest.
2. The vulnerable regions have been further analyzed based on state-specific socio-economic characteristics.
3. Fig.2 Source : Prepared by the authors based on the shape-file downloaded from DIVA-GIS () In India out of a total of 267 million children of 5 to 17 years of age group, almost 33 million children are OOS (Table ).

This implies that around 12.4% of children in the entire school-going age are OOS. The share of OOS girls (13.3%) is higher than that of boys (11.6%). Table 1 Out of school children in India (5–17 years) Table shows that the percentage is the lowest among the 6 to 13 years of age group.

This highlights the importance of the present Right to Education (RTE) Act in the country, which covers the age group 6 to 14 years. The percentage of OOS children shoots up after this age group. Since the National Education Policy (2020) attempts to universalize the education of this entire age group, this sharp increase in the percentage of OOS children after the age of 14 is expected to mitigate in the future.

However, the actual reality can only be seen in the future course of time.
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What is the primary reason girls in India drop out of school?

What are the reasons forcing Indian children to drop out of school? – Help in domestic work, economic condition, and lack of interest were found to be the topmost cause of discontinuing education. About 30.2% of the girls gave domestic work as the reason for discontinuing education and about 36.90% of boys left studies because they had to support their families.

It becomes especially difficult for girls to continue studying because of concerns about their safety. They face sanitary problems due to poor school facilities ultimately forcing them to stay back at home. Considered to be a liability, many girls are imposed to stay back at home, or are forced to get married at an early age (13.2%).

Many children believe that there is no point in studying if they have to do the same job as their parents, thus they leave school at primary level itself. More than 30% of children involved in the survey showed a lack of interest in studies, they preferred to drop out because whatever was being taught in schools barely intrigued them.
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Which state has highest school dropout ratio of girls in India?

Dropout rates by gender – For girls at the primary level, Manipur (8.2%), Mizoram (7.6%) and Arunachal Pradesh (6.8%) had the worst dropout rates in the country. Dropout rates for boys were higher than for girls in most states at the primary level. Arunachal Pradesh (9.8%), Manipur (9%) and Meghalaya (8.7%) have the worst dropout rates for boys at the primary level.

• At the secondary level, Assam (32.1%), Tripura (28.3%) and Meghalaya (27.1%) had the worst dropout rates for girls,
• For boys, the same three states, Tripura (31.3%), Assam (29.7%) and Meghalaya (28.9%) were the worst performers.
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Why do students drop out of school in India?

School dropouts: Causes and concerns Education is a basic human right and fosters economic growth and human development. Providing right type of education to the right people at right time is the key to human resource formation. Education enables a person to achieve a better job or means of self-employment.

1. It cultivates cultural values and beliefs in the child.
2. Once the awareness to send students regularly to the school continues, slow but sure results will follow.
3. The values of education are countless but let us not ignore the fact that education is a fundamental human right as it promotes individual freedom and empowerment and yields important development benefits.

Education for youngsters is a powerful tool by which we can prevent economically and socially marginalized adulthood and enables them to lift themselves out of poverty and participate fully as productive citizens. Dropping out of school is defined as leaving a school without completion to a formal qualification awarded.

It is of critical importance due to the economic and social consequences on communities and families. Educators and policy makers are constantly looking for support programs to re-enrol existing school dropouts and enable them to improve their academic achievement skills, obtain their high school diplomas or equivalent which bolster their employability through work experience and training.

Out of 200 million children from the age of 6-14 years, 120 million are in school but only 10 million managed to reach Class X. – A study by RTE India. Every year, a large number of students drop out of school worldwide and this hinders their economic and social well-being as well as reduces the literacy rate of the country and creates a non-innovative environment.

• The issue of dropout in India is of particular importance and interest.
• The number of high school and college students who do not complete their school and college education emerges as a significant challenge to the education system in India.
• There is a conventional norm in our country that each student has to complete his/her education before stepping into the professional world.

Although children discontinue schooling for various reasons, it is not the right practice as it could impact their future and overall development. Some of the most probable reasons why children drop out of school could be: Bad Influence Bad influence on children is the most common reason for kids dropping out of school.

1. Early or unlimited exposure to alcohol, drugs, internet, and television can distract children from pursuing academics and initiate them into antisocial activities instead.
2. Academic Difficulty Inability to cope with the academic pressure is another reason for kids to opt out of school.
3. Studies prove that kids who do not read proficiently are four times more likely to drop out of school.

Studies also reinstate the fact that students who fail in math are 75% more likely to drop out of high school. Family And Socio-Economic Needs A research reveals that students belonging to low-income groups are more likely to drop out of school. They may have to work to support their family.

• Some children may need to stay back at home to take care of their siblings while the parents go out to work.
• Divorce or separation of parents also affects the education of children adversely.
• According to a study by the National Center of Education Statistics, students with low family incomes have the highest dropout rates at 9.4%.

This is because many times these children need to get a job rather than going to school so they can help to support their families. Poor Health The health of a child greatly affects his learning ability and performance at school. Illnesses that occur during childhood and continue for a longer time may curb a child’s ability to continue school.

1. Retention (If practised) Retention has a negative impact on the self-esteem of children.
2. They feel bad being older than their classmates and tend to drop out of school.
3. Disengagement Many kids find school boring and according to a study, almost 71% students become disinterested in high school while they are in the 9th and 10th grades.

They prefer to go late to school, skip classes and take long lunch breaks. The lack of interest often leads to dropping out of school. Some students find it difficult to connect with the teacher. A majority of students did not feel their teachers motivated them enough to work hard.

Mental Illness According to a survy, those students with depression were twice as likely to drop out of high school. This is because their mental illness can affect their ability to learn and their engagement. These students also tend to go unnoticed because their condition might be chalked up to being a teenager.

Disabilities Students with disabilities, whether they are physical or emotional, have a harder time in school. According to a study, only about 62% of students with disabilities graduate. Depending on their disability, it can not only be harder for them to maneuver around the school, but they can become isolated as well.

• Lack of Parental Support The lack of parental involvement is a problem that often leads to higher dropout rates, especially with high school students.
• Parents play an important role when it comes to high school attendance.
• High school dropouts often have parents who weren’t engaged or concerned with their academic success.

If a parent doesn’t encourage her child to stay in school, show interest in classes and teachers, communicate with administration, or pay attention to homework assignments, the child might not see any reason to follow through with the coursework. When parents don’t prioritize their child’s high school education, the child may choose to drop out.

A recent survey by National Statistical Office (NSO) has revealed that around 12.6% of students drop out of schools in India, 19.8% discontinued education at the secondary level, while 17.5% dropped out at the upper primary level. The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) latest annual report has mentioned dropout rate for secondary level education to 14.6 per cent.

At the peak of the covid pandemic with school closures, 247 million children were affected in India. As per UDISE report 2021-22 over all dropout rate in Primary standard is 0.76%, In Upper Primary it is 2.27% and in Secondary classe it is 14.04%. Dropout rate is highest in Asam-30% followed by Megaliya and Tripora- 27% while as it is lowest in Chandigarh and Lakshadeep-0%.

It is recommended that the government should conduct awareness camps in cities, towns, and villages to expose the hazards of illiteracy and unemployment. National Education Policy 2020 has mentioned various initiatives to be undertaken to curb the problem of dropout. (1) The first is to provide efficient and sufficient infrastructure to all students.

(2) The second is to set up alternative and innovative education centers for the children of migrant laborers to ensure that their children have access to safe and engaging school education. (3) Dropout early warning system be carefully noticed at the schools to identify students who are at risk of dropping out of school and to focus on these students.

• 4) Schools should practice innovative teaching methods to draw students towards education and spark interest in them.
• 5) Digital learning strategies can be used to provide education so that students can access free educational content through smart-phone applications.
• Research also tells us that even before students themselves may realize they are on the path to dropping out, clear signals are given regarding their situation.

These signals include aspects such as low reading proficiency in the early grades, poor grades in core academic courses, poor attendance and misbehavior. Research tells us that parents and educators and school counsellors should look for these early signals to minimize their dropout.

Studies have shown that most students expressed regret for having dropped out of school, with many seeing graduating from high school as important to success in life and significant numbers suggesting that if they could relive the experience, they would have stayed in school. Schools should implement early warning data systems that promptly notify appropriate school staff who should be trained in spotting these students and should intervene quickly to provide appropriate interventions and become a voice for them, who will fight to ensure they receive the support they need and halt otherwise disengagement misconduct.

The Government’s Right to Education Act and National Policy on Education may have been motivating to provide education to all but it is equally important to analyze the sustainability and efficiency of the education system to stop dropout exercise. Dropout rates are considered to be a great wastage in the education system, not only do many students leave school without acquiring basic skills, but their premature departure represents a significant waste of scarce education resources.

In India, many students get only elementary education and after that number of students leaving the school are found to be increasing. The school dropout rate increases mostly in middle and high schools and this ultimately results in getting poor and incomplete education by the student which further results in low pay scale job and poor lifestyle.

Policy makers and education specialists should work together to implement a successful education system suitable for a new generation of students in the competitive job market that meets the challenges of modern globalized world. The education system should accept the challenges of the current job market through offering the necessary skills and tools to capture the interest of the new generation of students.

• The race to the top among different schools and educational entities as they reward winners in the race and punish losers in public tests is not a good practice.
• Current educational systems lack the understanding that the competitive world requires more cooperation in classrooms and between schools.
• As educators and policy makers we should find ways to ensure the education systems meet the needs of all youth, including those at-risk of dropping out.

Providing suitable education to all students, “equitable education system” makes sure that all students will perform well giving them early support. It will also emphasize caring and well-being in school (through healthy nutrition, medical, dental and psychological health).

1. A key factor in this equation is the “education system” itself.
2. What is needed is a flexible education system that offers an adequate individual personalization where learning activities are based on student needs and legitimate interests rather than, arbitrarily, on generic curriculum.
3. Giving the freedom for schools to craft their curricula based on their capacities and local needs will support efforts to keep students in schools.

Officials should act to reduce boredom and disengagement by expanding opportunities that are helpful like project-based and hands-on learning, giving high school students an option to earn credit for learning outside the traditional school day and year including internships and apprenticeships, independent study and community service.

The school dropout is indeed a matter of grave concern and to reduce this all, we should work towards transitioning all children back into learning. We must not only bring children back to school but also focus on putting strong remedial learning initiatives in place to ensure retention and continuity of learning.

(Writer is a regular writer for this newspaper and can be reached at ) : School dropouts: Causes and concerns
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How many people in India don’t go to school?

At least 35 million children aged 6 – 14 years do not attend school.
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How many females are denied education in India?

+ Key Takeaways – The average female literacy rate throughout the world is 79.9%, while for men it is 89.2%. India lingers behind at 62.3% for women as compared to 80% for men. Many girls in India are married at a young age and drop out of school after they complete their primary education due to societal pressures or early pregnancies.

1. Child labor and lack of feminine hygiene products keep girls from coming to school, and contribute to the literacy rates and continuous lack of education.
2. As girls remain uneducated, it is more difficult to enter the workforce, and consequently women find themselves in difficult financial situations.

As mothers in India remain uneducated, they negatively impact the education of their children thus the educational disparities become a cyclical, intergenerational issue. Educate Girls is one organization that successfully promotes primary and secondary education for Indian girls.
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What is the female education rate in India?

In 2021, the female literacy rate in India was 91.95% Between 2010-2021, the female literacy rate in India has increased by 14.4% On a year-on-year basis, the literacy rate increased by 0.6% in 2021 

Female Literacy Rate Overview Since 2010, India has a good female literacy rate. In 2010, the female literacy rate was 80.35%. With time eventually, the rate has increased. Between 2010-2021, the female literacy rate in India has increased by 14.4%. In 2021, the rate was 91.95%.

On a year-on-year basis, the literacy rate increased by 0.6% in 2021.  Female Literacy: Global Scenario According to UNESCO estimates, globally 129 million girls are out of school, including 32 million of primary school age, 30 million of lower-secondary school age, and 67 million of upper-secondary school age.

In countries affected by conflict, girls are more than twice as likely to be out of school than girls living in non-affected countries. Gender parity in elementary education has only been reached in 49% of the world’s nations. The gender disparity grows at the secondary level, where just 24% of countries have achieved gender parity in upper secondary education and 42% in lower school.

Impact of Female Education By supporting girls’ education, communities, nations, and the world are transformed. Girls who acquire an education are more likely to lead healthy, fulfilling lives and are less likely to marry early. They create better futures for themselves and their family, earn higher wages, and take part in decisions that most directly affect them.

Education for girls boosts economies and lowers inequality. It helps create more secure, resilient societies where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential, including boys and men. Social Factors Affecting Female Literacy Rate

Seasonal workforce migration Early marriage according to social customs Restriction on girls based on social norms Household chores managed by young girls Gender differences in home, society

Lack of educational facilities Economic conditions of the family Division of family responsibilities after the death of the elderly family member Government policies Female health

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What is the statistics of girls education in India?

Educational status of women in India As per the 2011 Census, the total literacy rate in India stands at 74.00 per cent and the rate of literacy among women is 65.46 per cent. The percentage of female literacy in the country was 54.16 per cent in 2001.
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Why girls education is a challenge in India?

Poverty – Poverty and gender-based preference are two of the main challenges which impact girl child education. Girls are forced to stay at home or engage in daily wage labor to contribute to the income of the house. According to a UN report, every year more than 1.5 million girls in India are married before they turn 18.
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Why do girls feel uncomfortable at school in India?

Causes of Girls feel Uncomfortable in Schools –

Lack of girls schools- Some of the girls do not want to study with the boys, they want to study in the girls school itself. They feel uncomfortable sitting with boys. Lack of female teachers- Some girls feel uncomfortable from male teachers. Exploitation by male teachers- Girls are exploited in various ways by some male teachers in schools. Such incidents are often seen in rural and remote areas, most of the girls are physically exploited by some male teachers. So girls feel uncomfortable a at school. During menstruation – During adolescence and the commencement of menstruation, girls in school face a variety of problems.,Napkins and toilets during menstruation are not available in some schools. School away from colony- Schools away from colony is also a reason to disrupt the education of girls. Girls are the victims of molestation at schools. Negligency feeling – Gender discrimination is also seen in school. Special attention is given by teachers to the education and progress of boys while education of girls not.Girls feels neglected in school. Fear of Punishment – Survey conducted in Tharkh and, Bihar and up towards ‘Plan India’, in this research on an average 55% girls dropped t from school due to the fear of punishment. Lack of Basic resources – Basic resources means furniture, playground, ventilated room, bound of school Glchicity, clean drinking water,toilets, etc. lack of these resources makes girls feel uncomfortable. Fear of anti-social elements – Due to the densele populated school, the girl students feel more uncomfortable, as they have to go to school through dense settlements. Sometimes anti-social elements also enter the school. Lack of safety – Lack of security in schools creates an atmosphere of fear in the stude the students feel insecure and start leaving a school.

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Which city in India has most girls?

Top 10 Cities of India by Highest Sex Ratio (Gender Ratio) of Female per 1000 males

Rank	City	State
1	Kozhikode	Kerala
2	Alappuzha	Kerala
3	Kollam	Kerala

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Which college has more girls than boys in India?

NEW DELHI: At a time when management institutes across the world are trying to bring gender parity in male-dominated classrooms of business education, a young Indian Institute of Management ( IIM ) has made history by admitting more girls than boys this year.

In the cohort of 2022, IIM Raipur has 205 girls compared to 125 boys – thus overturning the gender equation on campus that had admitted 146 boys and 120 girls last year. Now, the institute has 20% more girls than boys in the flagship postgraduate programme in management. Meanwhile, IIM Rohtak crossed the half-mark this year by admitting 54% women and IIM Kozhikode, which for one year in 2019 set aside 60 supernumerary seats, has seen the share of women candidates admitted in 2022 at 46.7%.

Apart from Raipur and Kozhikode, while many IIMs have crossed the mark of having 30% women this year (see table below), others such as IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta are slowly inching closer to that. A 2021 application trend survey by GMAC revealed that more women than men had applied to join B-schools around the world. IIM Raipur is an example where this trend played out imposingly. The institute’s admission process was gender-blind: Neither did it alter its selection process nor the interview panel. No additional marks were doled out to women candidates. “Our BoG (board of governors) chairperson is a woman.

Inside the campus, there is a fair amount of change we have brought about that is gender neutral. We have sent out a lot of signals of gender neutrality, directly and indirectly. Raipur is also considered to be a safe location. Some of the women candidates abandoned better institutes and joined Raipur,” said the 12-year-young institute’s director Ramkumar Kakani,

IIM Kozhikode stands alongside Harvard Business School and Oxford Said as one of the most balanced MBA programmes in the world. Diversity sits at its core with strong women power in its board of governors and among faculty. “Long ago, we saw the gender ratio of the country changing.

We will soon have more women than men in our country and that demographic feature of the nation is reflected on our campus. When we were making a decision about incorporating women in our campus, we were making this decision based on the changing nature of our demography, on the way corporates were thinking.

It is not about numbers, it is not just a headcount we are talking about; it is about a fundamental shift in perception,” said IIMK director Debashis Chatterjee. “The more diversity the better off a school is.” Chatterjee was quick to add that the first step to diversity is “always uneasy”.
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Why Indian students come back to India?

How India benefits from Indian graduates who return with foreign degrees Studying abroad is a dream come true for hundreds of Indian students each year. Growing applications to top universities abroad is a testament to that. What opportunities they have once they graduate is a separate conversation altogether.

• Of these hundreds, many secure jobs and work opportunities in the country where they earned their degree.
• Despite relaxing visa rules for students, the same cannot be said for work permits.
• While you may get a student visa based on an admit to a foreign university and proof of financial security, work permits are lottery and consequently, luck based.

At the same time, countries are extending the stay permitted past completing a degree so that students can look for a job. Nevertheless, permit uncertainty and a high cost of living may convince a student to return home. Many students go abroad with the intent of returning home to work.

Some others work there for a few years to pay off their student loans before coming back. And the rest decide to stay abroad. Most students return to India armed with industry exposure, a prestigious degree, and access to a global network. The effects of these resources are seen in the boom of start-ups in recent years.

It’s almost as if a new unicorn crops up every month helmed by Indian students who graduated abroad. It’s a well-harped fact that the Indian demographic is young, and this post-liberalisation generation is unafraid to take risks with their ideas. In most cases, foreign education is rigorous, research-oriented, and self study-based.

• Compared with the more traditional and academically inclined education in India, this foreign degree speaks for a student’s soft skills.
• Many employers are looking for candidates who understand the industry and are coming in with fresh ideas.
• Students have come to gather the importance of internships and work experience while still in college.

When you have experience in countries abroad, you make for a nearly perfect employee. Furthermore, returning students can help raise export earnings. Because they are acclimated to foreign markets and their consumers, they are able to design products and services that cater to foreign needs.

This income is crucial for the domestic economy in hedging against global fluctuations or uncertainties. Apart from being a means to give the Indian economy a leg up, this returning demographic is also in touch with its roots. There are so many stories of successful executives who returned to India to start their venture in their home town or village.

This grounds-up movement is not only a source of confidence but also a resource for long-term development. Even if influencers live abroad or return to India, they are able to represent the Indian perspective on the global stage across fields. How India will continue to benefit from its human resource capital is a waiting game.
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How many Indian students leave India every year?

According to the latest Education Ministry data, more than 770,000 Indian students went abroad to study in 2022 – a six-year high.
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What do most Indian schools fail to ensure their students?

4. (A) much (B) many (C) more (D) less – Answer: (1)

(a) does – not used to show disagreement (b) does not – not used with plural (c) don’t – this is correct (d) do – not used to show disagreement

Since the sentence is in simple present tense and is talking about a group of children, ‘don’t’ will be used. So, the correct answer is “(c)-don’t” (2)

(a) lack – this is correct (b) lacked – used with past tense (c) have lacked – not used with simple present tense (d) had lacked – not used with present tense

Since the sentence is in simple present tense, ‘lack’ will be used. So, the correct answer is “(a)-lack”. (3)

(a) was – not used with present tense (b) are – this is correct (c) is – not used with plurals (d) have – not the correct verb

Since the sentence is in simple present tense with ‘schools’ being plural, ‘are’ will be used. So, the correct answer is “(b)-are”. (4)

(a) much – not used with numbers (b) many – not used with numbers (c) more – this is correct (d) less – used when something is in a smaller quantity as compared to the other

Since the sentence is talking about the number of sports periods given by school which is greater than two, ‘more’ will be used. So, the correct answer is “(c)-more”. Thus the correct paragraph is Most Indian schools fail to ensure their students adequate playtime and fitness regime.
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Is India education system good?

Is a CBSE school in Coimbatore the right choice for your family? India ranks well regarding the best education systems in the world, with a quality index of 59.1 according to a CEOWORLD survey. Moreover, the country is considered to have the most challenging Mathematics curriculum worldwide and the toughest exam, the IIT-JEE. The advantages of studying in the top ten CBSE schools in Coimbatore

A globally recognised curriculum

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is just one of many school boards in India. However, it is often considered the best and most studied. It is known for its emphasis on holistic development and co-curricular activities. Moreover, the CBSE programme is geared toward students who wish to enter the medical and engineering fields.

Accessible and compulsory education

The Constitution states that all children aged six to fourteen have the fundamental right to education. As a result, no child gets left behind, with over 1 million schools in India providing high-quality and accessible education. Additionally, the best CBSE schools in Coimbatore have quickly adapted to the “new normal.” Nowadays, schools offer both in-classroom and online classes, ensuring that each student completes their education regardless of their pace.

Affordable fee structures

Did you know that Indian schools are relatively more affordable than other institutions around the world? Schools supported by the government can provide free education in line with the Constitution. Of course, private schools will have different fee structures; however, you can ensure that the quality of education your child receives from the top ten CBSE schools in Coimbatore is a worthwhile investment.
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Which country has most students from India?

Historical trends – In 2010, the number of Indian students studying in the US crossed 100,000. According to the 2017 report, the number of Indian students in the USA numbered 186,000. In 2019, Indian students opting for the US declined by 4%. At least 207,000 international Indian students were recorded to be present in the United States in 2020.
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What is the school dropout rate in India 2000?

NEW DELHI: After spending several thousand crores on elementary education, the government has been able to bring down the dropout rate in primary schools by only two per cent in 10 years. The figures available in the Selected Educational Statistics (2000-2001), the latest in government records, show that the dropout rate from Class I to V was 40.67 per cent in 2000-2001.

This, however, is not much different from the figures for 1990-1991 when the dropout rate was 42.6 per cent. In 2000-2001, 39.7 per cent of the boys who enrolled in schools dropped out before reaching class V. The dropout rate for girls was higher as 41.9 per cent left school at the primary level. In 1990-1991, the statistics were more or less the same — 40.1 per cent boys dropped out of primary schools while the dropout rate for girls was 46 per cent.

Though the HRD ministry is yet to publish final figures for 2001-2002, the provisional figures point to a dropout rate of 39 per cent in primary schools. The ministry takes refuge for the high drop-out rate by saying that all major schemes on universalisation of elementary education started after 2000-2001.

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the government’s most ambitious project on elementary education, was launched in 2001. The 86th Constitution Amendment Act, which made elementary education for all children a fundamental right, was enacted in 2002. However, even before the launch of these projects, the government spent Rs 15,588 crore in the Ninth Five-Year (1997-2002) Plan on elementary education.

The amount allocated for elementary education was Rs 17,000 crore. In the Eighth Plan, nearly Rs 7,000 crore was spent on education. ‘‘ Unless the government gets its policies right, the dropout rate will continue to hover around 40-39 per cent,’’ said an expert.

• Eduationist Anil Sadgopal says: ‘‘A school-type facility is not adequate to attract children.
• We need to devise a curriculum that is more relevant to the needs of children in rural areas.
• It should address the issue of livelihood, which may not necessarily mean employment.
• But it can be based on issues like problems in the fields and villages.’’ He also stressed the need to improve the overall quality of education in primary schools.

‘‘The emphasis is on minimum level of learning which is a wrong notion,’’ Sadgopal said. He said programmes on women empowerment need to be taken up.
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What is the graduation rate in India?

India has a publicly funded higher education system that is the third largest in the world, next to the United States and China, The main governing body at the tertiary level is the University Grants Commission, which enforces its standards, advises the government, and helps coordinate between the centre and the state.

• Accreditation for higher learning is overseen by 15 autonomous institutions established by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
• As per the latest 2011 Census, about 8.15% (98.615 million) of Indians are graduates, with Union Territories of Chandigarh and Delhi topping the list with 24.65% and 22.56% of their population being graduates respectively.

Indian higher education system has expanded at a fast pace by adding nearly 20,000 colleges and more than 8 million students in a decade from 2000–01 to 2010–11. As of 2020, India has over 1000 universities, with a break up of 54 central universities, 416 state universities, 125 deemed universities, 361 private universities and 159 Institutes of National Importance which include AIIMS, IIMs, IIITs, IISERs, IITs and NITs among others.

Other institutions include 52,627 colleges as government degree colleges, private colleges, standalone institutes and post-graduate research institutions, functioning under these universities as reported by the MHRD in 2020. Colleges may be Autonomous, i.e. empowered to examine their own degrees, up to PhD level in some cases, or non-autonomous, in which case their examinations are under the supervision of the university to which they are affiliated; in either case, however, degrees are awarded in the name of the university rather than the college.

The emphasis in the tertiary level of education lies on science and technology. Indian educational institutions by 2004 consisted of many technology institutes. Distance learning and open education is also a feature of the Indian higher education system, and is looked after by the Distance Education Council,

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is the largest university in the world by number of students, having approximately 3.5 million students across the globe. Some institutions of India, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani (BITS), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISERs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), University of Delhi, University of Calcutta, University of Madras, Jawaharlal Nehru University have been globally acclaimed for their standard of education.

However, Indian universities still lag behind universities such as Harvard, Cambridge, and Oxford, Indian higher education is radical in terms of accessibility, and needs radical reforms in standards, giving value, and pacing. A focus on enforcing both streamlining and holding higher standards of curriculum with the help of international academic publishers for transparency and reducing inequalities characterised by globalisation, making the vocational and doctoral education pipeline value-oriented and innovative, personalisation of the sector for students to gain immediate and valid transferable credentials in their own pace (e.g., Massive open online course, digital learning, etc.), empowering students to enter the work-force through exit and re-entry options with necessary building blocks of knowledge that leads to a skill/set of skills from a single or multiple academic fields (with required chains of knowledge), instituting stronger institutional responsibility in services for reprioritizing service delivery and for working around related complexities, working with international standardization agencies to ensure students are getting value out of the programs, etc are the basic changes needed for gaining international and national competency.

The rise of interest in IT sector, and engineering education in India has boxed students with crammed knowledge that gives them lesser chance to explore and develop their passions with modern elements of education such as co-operative education, work-based training, etc. Moreover, by the end of the 4 year degree most of what students study in the beginning years becomes irrelevant or becomes subjective to knowledge degradation.

Many foreign countries consider the traditional degree pathway that forces student’s in working age to pause for half a decade to earn a degree in a digitized academic environment is less effective and not suitable for a growth economy. Especially in STEM fields when “micro-certificates” are a required aspect of life long learning in the field to stay relevant; many of these micro-certificates or learning blocks either function as a start of a base of knowledge or add on to an existing base.
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What is the school dropout rate in India 2017?

Average dropout rate of girls recorded at 17.3% at secondary level in 2018-19: WCD Ministry February 05, 2021 07:29 pm | Updated 07:29 pm IST – New Delhi The annual average dropout rate of girls was 17.3% at the secondary education level and 4.74% at the elementary level in 2018-19.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani also said that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights registered 111 complaints of child marriage during 2020.On the average dropout rate of girls from 2014 to 2019, she gave State and union territory-wise data in her reply.Karnataka, Assam, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura were among the States that recorded high drop-out rates among girls in the period.

According to the data, the annual average dropout rate of girls was 17.3% at the secondary education level and 4.74% at the elementary level in 2018-19. In 2017-18, the average dropout rate was 18.39% at the secondary education level and 4.1% at the elementary level, it stated.

• The average dropout rate of girls in 2016-17, was 19.81% at the secondary education level and 6.34% at the elementary level.
• The data stated that in 2015-16, the annual average dropout rate of girls was 16.88% at the secondary education level and 4.09% at the elementary level.
• In 2014-15, the dropout rate was recorded at 17.79% at the secondary education level and 4.3% at the elementary level.

: Average dropout rate of girls recorded at 17.3% at secondary level in 2018-19: WCD Ministry
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What is the dropout rate in India 2017?

Dropout rate among girl students decreased during Covid: Govt Despite concerns that the dropout rate among girl students went up during Covid, the government has said that, on the contrary, fewer number of girls were leaving school. Dropout rates across primary, upper primary and secondary schools among girls fell in 2019-20 in comparison to the previous two years, the Ministry of Education said in Parliament on Monday.

• Furnishing data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE), the education ministry said that across primary schools, the dropout rate rose from 3.3 per cent in 2017-18 to 4.3 per cent in 2018-19, but fell to 1.2 per cent in 2019-20.
• Similarly, in the upper-primary segment, the dropout rate fell from 5.6 per cent in 2017-18 to 5.1 per cent in 2018-19 and fell to 3 per cent in 2019-20.

In secondary school, where the dropout rates are considerably high, it fell from 18.4 per cent in 2017-18 to 17 per cent in 2018-19 and then to 15.1 per cent in 2019-20. Also Read | “The above data shows that the drop-out rate of girls has been decreasing consistently,” minister of state in the education ministry, Annapurna Devi said in her reply.

• In 2017-18, the dropout rate in Assam in primary education was highest at 8.9 per cent, while in 2018-19, Meghalaya accounted for the highest dropout rate among school girls at 15.3 per cent.
• In 2019-20, Manipur registered the maximum dropout rate with 8.7 per cent.
• In upper-primary education, Bihar accounted for the highest in all the three years – 13.3 per cent in 2017-18, 12.9 per cent in 2018-19 and 9.2 per cent in 2019-20.

Assam again accounted for the highest dropout rate in 2017-18 as well as in 2019-20 in secondary education with 35.2 per cent and 32.9 per cent respectively, while Arunachal Pradesh had the highest dropout rate in 2018-19 (35 per cent). “In order to ensure greater participation of girls in schools and to reduce drop-out rate of girls, various interventions have been targeted under Samagra Shiksha which include opening of schools, provision of free text-books & uniforms to girls up to Class VIII, provision of gender-segregated toilets in all schools, teachers’ sensitisation programmes to promote girls’ participation,” Devi said in her reply.

Additionally, all States and UTs have been requested to proactively track girls as well as transgender children, who are not enrolled in schools or have dropped out of school and get them admitted in schools,” she added. In the winter session of the Parliament, the Standing Committee on Empowerment of Women asked the Centre to step up efforts to prevent girls from poor families from dropping out of schools.

Observing UDISE data, the panel noted that in 2018-19, the Gross Enrolment Ratio among girl students fell from 96.72 per cent in elementary schools to 76.93 per cent in secondary schools. In higher secondary education, it was 50.84 per cent. Across sectors, the panel noted, the dropout rate among girl students in 2019-20 was 15.1 per cent.
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