The Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) have launched a new national initiative aimed at bringing more than two crore out-of-school children back into the education system, as concerns grow over dropout rates at the secondary level.
The initiative was discussed during a high-level meeting chaired by Sanjay Kumar, Secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), who described the scale of school dropouts as one of India’s most urgent educational challenges. Officials from NIOS, state governments, and district administrations participated in the meeting to develop a coordinated implementation strategy.
According to Kumar, current data shows that out of every 100 children enrolled in Class 1, only 62 reach Class 12. Referring to findings from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), he noted that over two crore children between the ages of 14 and 18 are currently outside the formal education system.
Officials said economic hardship remains one of the primary reasons students leave school early. Financial pressures, domestic responsibilities, migration, and the need to support household income continue to force many adolescents out of classrooms before completing secondary education.
The initiative will initially be piloted across 10 districts in states identified as having high concentrations of out-of-school children, including Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi.
The government said the programme would move beyond conventional re-enrolment drives by integrating flexible education systems, vocational learning, and employability-focused training. Officials emphasised that many students who leave school cannot return to standard classroom models because of work obligations or family circumstances.
For such students, the Centre plans to rely heavily on NIOS and state open schooling systems using Open and Distance Learning (ODL) models. The framework is expected to include flexible learning schedules, digital support systems, community-based facilitators, and locally relevant vocational modules.
Prachi Pandey, Joint Secretary in the Department of School Education and Literacy, said the programme would be implemented in “mission mode” using data-driven identification of vulnerable children and targeted interventions in underserved regions.
NIOS Chairperson Akhilesh Mishra described the initiative as a broader social effort rather than merely an administrative exercise. He said the aim was to reconnect young people with education through systems that adapt to students’ realities rather than expecting students to fit rigid institutional structures.
According to NIOS Secretary Shakeel Ahmad, the implementation plan includes field-level surveys, app-based monitoring tools, trained facilitators, and phased district-level rollouts to track enrolment and retention.
The initiative comes at a time when multiple government and independent reports have flagged concerns around secondary school dropout rates in India. A recent NITI Aayog study estimated that nearly one in every 10 students enrolled at the secondary level leaves school before completing education, with dropout rates significantly higher in economically vulnerable regions.
Education experts say that while India has made major gains in expanding school access over the past two decades, retaining students through secondary and senior secondary education remains a major challenge, particularly among low-income households and migrant communities.
