According to a recent NITI Aayog study examining trends in India’s education system, nearly one in every 10 students enrolled at the secondary school level drops out before completing schooling. The findings have renewed concerns over retention, access, and the widening divide between states in school education outcomes.
The report titled School Education System in India: Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement, the study analysed enrolment, infrastructure, dropout patterns, and learning indicators across states and union territories. It found that the national secondary-level dropout rate stood at around 9% in recent years, though several states recorded significantly higher figures.
States such as West Bengal, Karnataka, Assam, Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh reported some of the highest secondary-level dropout rates in the country. West Bengal recorded a dropout rate of nearly 20%, while Karnataka and Arunachal Pradesh reported rates above 18%. In contrast, Kerala, Uttarakhand, and Chandigarh recorded comparatively lower dropout rates.
The findings also point to a larger structural shift underway in Indian schooling. Government school enrolment, which stood at nearly 71% in 2005, has fallen below 50% for the first time, reaching 49.24% in the 2024-25 academic year. The decline reflects a growing migration toward private schools across both urban and rural India.
The study linked several dropout patterns to infrastructure gaps, teacher shortages, and unequal access to quality schooling. Rural schools in many states continue to face shortages of teachers, internet access, classrooms, and basic facilities, affecting retention rates at the secondary level.
It also highlighted how transition points in schooling remain vulnerable stages for students. Dropout rates tend to increase significantly between upper primary and secondary education, particularly among economically disadvantaged students and those living in remote areas.
At the same time, the data identified states that had shown major improvements in enrolment over the past decade. Karnataka recorded one of the sharpest increases in higher secondary gross enrolment ratio (GER), rising from 29.7% to 61.4%, although concerns over retention remain.
Education experts say the findings reflect a deeper challenge beyond enrolment numbers alone. While access to schooling has expanded significantly over the past two decades, keeping students in classrooms through secondary education continues to remain uneven across regions. Factors such as household income pressures, migration, quality of teaching, language barriers, and exam-related stress continue to influence dropout trends.
The findings come at a time when India is attempting large-scale education reforms under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which aims to improve retention, foundational literacy, digital access, and overall learning outcomes across school education.