Bhopal: MP ranks third in school dropout rate in the age group of 6-13 years in India. This fact came to light amidst tall claims made by the state government recently. In response to a question in Lok Sabha, Union government replied that dropout of school students was highest in Uttar Pradesh followed by Bihar and MP. According to the response the number of schools dropouts in MP is 2, 35,384.
According to the District Information System for Education (DISE) latest report number of government schools in MP came down by 1067 as compared to last year. Education Activist, Prashant said that MP also stands third in shortage of teachers, which is one the main reasons for this huge number of dropouts in state.
“State government had accepted in assembly that 4,811 government schools are without teachers. This means many schools only have buildings and no teachers. Moreover there are more than 18,000 single teacher schools in the state according to government figures,” said Prashant.
One can imagine the plight of students who have no teachers in their schools or have only one teacher. Not just this teachers available at schools are burdened several clerical works which prevent them from conducting classes. Students or their parents are left with no choice other than opting for an expensive private schools or drop out of schools, he added.
“Then there are schools that still don’t have separate toilets for girls which is another reason for girls dropping out of school. Again the ones that have toilets don’t have water,” he added. Net enrolment ratio in MP is 78.62 at primary school level and 70.29 at middle school level which means that 21.38% children at primary level and 29.71% at middle level are devoid of school education.
Another worrying trend observed in the report is that an increase in numbers of single-teacher schools. In the year 2016-17 numbers of such schools were 19,132 about a thousand more in comparison to previous year. The system of tracking students who stop coming to the schools exists but it is not monitored properly therefore the dropout rate is high in the state, it could brought down if government wants, said Anjali Noronha, senior fellow.
