5 days ago
- General
- New Indian Express
ST school dropout rate goes down to 18% from 33% in Odisha
BHUBANESWAR: The state government has been able to retain Scheduled Tribe (ST) students in the education system by significantly bringing down their dropout rate.
While the dropout rate at the secondary (Class IX and X) was extremely high at 33.12 per cent (pc) in the 2021-22 academic session against the then national average of 16.2 pc, it has come down by almost half in the 2023-24 session.
The data was recently placed in the Parliament.
According to the Ministry of Education, 18.1 pc ST students dropped out of schools at the secondary level before completing their Class X in 2023-24 session. At present, the national average is 19.6 pc. This percentage includes more number of ST boys giving up education at the secondary level. In upper primary (Class VI to VIII) and primary level, the dropout rates are much lower at 4.6 pc and 0.7 pc respectively.
Sustained efforts in engaging children in experimental learning across all grades, remedial classes and scholarships have been instrumental in retaining the students to some extent, said a higher official of the school education wing of the ST and SC Development department.
'Apart from the regular pre and post-matric scholarships to the students, the government has also started to provide them `5,000 each under Shahid Madho Singh Haath Kharcha scheme which is also aimed at reducing the dropout rate among ST students,' he added.
Educationist Kailash Chandra Dantapat, however, said more interventions are needed to further bring down the dropout rate from 18 pc.
'Eighteen pc is still high. Usually, once ST children reach Class VIII, they are more keen towards moving to other states for work and it continues to happen even now. This is when their counselling needs to be done to ensure that they stay back in classes,' he said.
Odisha has close to 1,700 residential schools and 5,500 hostels, which cater to 4.5 lakh ST and SC students across primary, secondary, and senior secondary levels of education.
