Assam primary school Dropout Rate Increases Drastically in School Children

The dropout rate in Assam’s primary schools almost doubled during 2021-22 from the previous fiscal partly due to the identification of fake students enrolled by several government-run schools.

The cabinet minister for education in the Assam Government has mentioned that the dropout rate of students has doubled in the state. This number is from the government institutions imparting education at the primary level. And the numbers are regarding the first session after the complete reopening of these schools after the COVID-19 global pandemic.

He said the analysis of data uploaded on the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) revealed a jump in the dropout rate in lower primary schools from 3.3% in 2020-21 to 6.02% in 2021-22.

The dropout rate in upper primary schools also increased to 8.8% in 2021-22 from 4.6% in 2020-21.

“The number of total dropout students in the last fiscal was 1,29,543. A survey helped us find out that 27,941 of these out-of-school children were never enrolled,” Mr. Pegu said.

Mr. Pegu, however, said Assam was not the only State to have experienced the pandemic-induced dropouts from schools.