The dropout rate in Gujarat is constantly rising, despite the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership's claims that the state has great educational facilities. This is demonstrated by data provided by various government departments, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
According to information collected from the minutes of meetings of the Project Approval Board (PAB) under the Ministry of Education on the Samagra Shiksha plan for 2022-23, the dropout rate in 2020-21 at the secondary level in Gujarat was 23.3%.
When it comes to dropout rates
While, in response to a question in Lok Sabha on February 13, 2023, the Department of Education stated that the dropout rate in Gujarat at the primary level was:
2017-18: 1.7%
2018-19: 2.3%
2019-20: 1.0%
2021-22: 0.0%
While the dropout rate at the secondary level was:
2017-18: 20.6%
2018-19: 23.8%
2019-20: 23.7%
2020-21: 23.3%
2021-23: 17.9%
According to the Education Ministry of India, male students in Classes VI to VIII dropout at a rate of 4.2%, while girls in the same grade level drop out at a rate of 5.8%, but on the secondary level, 19.4% of male students drop out and 15.9% females dropped out in Gujarat during the year 2021-22.
Financial assistance from Centre for Gujarat
On one side, when the dropout rate in Gujarat is very high, the education department also claimed in Lok Sabha that the Central Government has extended financial assistance to Gujarat for education through various schemes.
2018-19: Rs 67089.16 lakh were allocated
2019-20: Rs 115286.16 lakh
2020-21: Rs 97632.80 lakh
2021-22: Rs 89375.71 lakh
2022-23: Rs 79371.51 lakh
While according to the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5), Gujarat ranks bottom in terms of the percentage of students who drop out of school each year in rural India.
Only over 45% of the roughly 96.4% of male primary school students enrol in higher secondary education. Around 97.3% of female students enrol at the primary level, but only about 29.2% continue to the upper secondary level in the state.
When it comes to dropout rate among girls
The percentage of girls who drop out is 85.9% when they are between 11 and 13 years of age and further to 53.7% when they turn 14 and 15. Finally, 29.2% of girls reach the higher secondary level. When they are between the ages of 11 and 13, the proportion of girls decreases to 85.9% and when they are between the ages of 14 and 15, it further decreases to 53.7%.
UNICEF survey
About 33% of female students drop out of school due to domestic labour, and 25% do so due to marriage, according to a recent United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) survey. The UNICEF reported that in many places after finishing school, many children began working as labourers with their families or take up house cleaning.
Gujarat Congress Spokesperson, Hiren Banker, said, "The government spends crores of rupees every year in the name of Shala Pravesh Utsav (school entrance festival), but on the other hand, as of 2021-22, Gujarat has 1,657 schools with only one teacher; how can children study in such schools? Isn't it strange that the dropout rate climbs in such a situation? West Bengal and Maharashtra are also among the poor performers, though they are relatively better off than Gujarat and Assam," he says.
