Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot on Wednesday, January 4 regretted the high student dropout rate and said it was a big problem in the country. He was speaking at the three-day 100th All India Principal's Conference in Bengaluru organised by the Karnataka branch of the Association of Heads of Anglo-Indian Schools in India.

“Education paves the way for development. It is the only tool to give the right direction to society, the country and the world. The high student dropout rate is a big problem in the country and we need to put in more efforts to eliminate it," he said, according to a report by TNIE. He said that the way to combat this is to include more organisations in developing schools. “To increase student enrolment, organisations should come forward and adopt students, schools and villages. The aim of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is to provide education to all with the freedom to choose his or her own subjects and study in his or her mother tongue," he elaborated. 

He said technology plays an important role in improving education. “Technology is very important to improve the quality of education. There is a great need for effective use of digital learning tools in classrooms,” he added.

According to data released by the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) of the Department of School Education and Literacy, the Ministry of Education, the dropout rate for primary school from Classes I to V was up from 0.8% in 2020-21 to 1.5% in 2021-22. At the upper primary level, the dropout rate had increased by three per cent and was in fact, the highest in three years. For secondary education, the annual dropout rate was 14.6%.