Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar has informed that the annual average dropout rate at the primary school level in the country was 4.13 per cent in 2014-15.
According to the data provided by the minister during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, the dropout rate among boys at primary level was 4.36 per cent higher than that of girls’ 3.88 per cent. For the same period, 4.03 per cent was the dropout rate in upper primary level while the same for secondary level was 17.06 per cent.
He said, due to no detention policy, there are many cases of children dropping out at the ninth class level.
The minister said that exams are held in Class 9 and students do not know much, observing that many schools had just become midday meal schools, where children came, had a meal and left while their education suffered.
The ministry to resolve this problem had brought in learning outcomes and trained around 15 lakh teachers, he said.
Javadekar said that the present government in its first year has taken steps to resolve the issue of non-availability of separate toilets for girls. It was one of the major reasons for higher dropout rates.
There was no shortage of teachers in the country rather their deployment issues resulted into lack of skilled teachers in certain places, Javadekar added.
Answering a question, the HRD minister said that measure like attendance through biometric system has been taken to make teachers present at the schools.
