Centre asks states to take steps to check high school dropout rates

New Delhi: School dropout rates at the secondary level were found to be high in a dozen states, including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, according to a report by a department of the Education Ministry.

The Central government has suggested that the states take special steps to reduce the dropout rate as laid out in the National Education Policy, 2020. Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand and Punjab were also found to have high school dropout rates.

The information on dropout rates at the secondary school level was obtained from the minutes of the meetings of the Project Approval Board (PAB), which comes under the Ministry of Education.

The meetings of the Samagra Shiksha programme for 2025-26 were held between April and May this year with different states.

According to officials, the government wants to achieve a 100 per cent Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) at the school level by 2030 as targeted in the NEP, 2020 and considers dropout as a hindrance.

According to the PAB report, the dropout rate in 2023-24 at the secondary level in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tripura, Karnataka, Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu remains an area of concern.

The Centre has advised these states to initiate a special enrolment drive in the form of door-to-door surveys in school catchment areas to identify out-of-school children (OoSC) and to ensure their admissions.

In Bihar, as per the report, there were “large variations” in the reporting of data, especially on OoSC on the PRABANDH portal. The state was directed to initiate a special enrolment drive with the involvement of school management committees to ensure the identification and admission of all OoSC.

The report said 57.06 per cent of school students in Delhi study in government-run schools which make up 48.99 per cent of schools in the national capital.