Secondary school dropout rate in K'taka higher than national average

Press Trust of India

New Delhi: Gujarat, Bihar, Karnataka, Assam and Punjab are among seven states where the school dropout rate at the secondary level was higher than the national average of 12.6 per cent in 2021-22. This information was collated from the minutes of the Project Approval Board (PAB) meetings held under the Ministry of Education to discuss the implementation of the "Samagra Shiksha" programme for 2023-24.

The government views dropout as a barrier to achieving the new National Education Policy's aim of 100 per cent Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) at the school level by 2030. The details of the PAB meeting minutes show that the dropout rate at the secondary level in 2021–22 was 20.46 per cent in Bihar, 17.85 per cent in Gujarat, 20.3 per cent in Assam, 16.7 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 17.2 per cent in Punjab, 21.7 per cent in Meghalaya and 14.6 per cent in Karnataka.

The survey of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) last year states that in India, 33 per cent of girls drop out of school due to domestic work. It was also found in many places that after leaving school, children started working as labourers with their  families or cleaning people's houses.