Bhubaneswar: The dropout rate in the secondary school level in Odisha is at 27.3 per cent as against the national dropout rate of 12.6 per cent, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash told the state Assembly Wednesday.
Replying to a question from Mohan Charan Majhi (BJP), the Minister however said the 27.3 per cent dropout rate as per the UDISE report is not correct as most of the students read in various technical, vocational, polytechnic and open schools and the UDISE does not collect their data.
The Minister said in 2017-18 the annual average drop outrate in the state at primary level was 5.81 per cent, 5.45 per cent at upper primary level and 5.41 per cent at the secondary level.
In 2018-19, the dropout rate at primary level was 5.42 per cent, 6.93 per cent in the upper primary, and 5.41 per cent at secondary level.
In 2019-20 the average dropout rate was 0.82 per cent in the primary, 4.49 per cent in upper primary and 23.39 per cent in secondary level.
While the dropout rate was zero in the primary and upper primary levels in 2020-21, it was 16.04 per cent in the secondary level.
In 2021-22, the average dropout rate in the state stood at zero at the primary level, 7.34 per cent at the upper primary level and 27.26 per cent at the secondary level.
The Minister said as per the survey conducted in 221-22, as many as 14,929 students in the age group of 6-13, and 54,754 students in the age group of 14 to 18 out-of-school children were identified and brought to school.
Dash said the government is helping the students who failed to clear the class-X examination in passing the examination through open schools. So far arrangement has been made to impart schooling to 9,517 students through open schools.
Replying to another question, the Minister said at present 68,37,289 students are reading in 62,291 schools in the state. Out of it, 50,79,912 students are studying in 48,865 government schools in Class-I to X.
The government, he said is opening seasonal hostels, residential hostels for urban deprived children, residential schools in LWE areas and imparting special training for out-of-school children, opening open schools to check dropout rate.
UNI