New DelhiSchool dropout rates among girl students have seen a sharp decline over the past four years, with the fastest being at the secondary level – between the ages of 11 and 14 – government data show.
Two separate figures shared by the government in Parliament from 2017-18 to 2020-21 show that fewer girls have dropped out of school in these years.
An analysis of data shared by the Minister of State for Education (MoS) Annapurna Devi in Parliament in April this year and on Wednesday shows that the dropout rate of girls at the secondary level (classes 9-10) has decreased. About five percent – from 18.4 percent girl students drop out in 2017-18 to 13.7 percent in 2020-21.
A similar decline – though not as sharp – has also been observed in the dropout rate of girl students at the primary (classes 1-5) and upper primary (classes 6-8) levels. While the dropout rate has declined from 3.3 per cent girl students in 2017-18 to 0.7 per cent in 2020-21, at the upper primary level, the dropout rate for girls has been 5.6 per cent in 2017-18. 2.6 percent in 2020-21.
The statistics say nothing about the tendency to drop out of school at the higher secondary level.
Interestingly, the dropout drop has been sharpest at the secondary level, which often sees highest dropout,
various reports Early marriage and the burden of household chores are cited as reasons for the high dropout rate among girls at this age. However, the dropout rate among girls in secondary school saw a decline of about five per cent from 2017-18 and 2020-21.
Annapurna Devi has credited the education ministry’s Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan – a school education scheme with a focus on holistic education for children – for the drop in the dropout rate among girl students.
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Examine the dropout rate among girls
Both the data shared by the MoS were in response to questions about the dropout rate among girl students in the school and the measures taken by the government to correct it.
“Various facilities are being provided to promote girls education under Samagra Shiksha. These include opening schools in state-defined neighbourhoods, free uniforms and textbooks for girls up to class 8, provision of gender-discriminatory toilets in all schools, provision of self-defense training to girls from classes 6 to 8. CWSN (Children with Special Needs) stipend to girls from class 1 to class 12, among others,” the minister said in his reply on Wednesday.
He said that special state specific projects for equity like life skills, sanitary pad vending machines and commercialization of secondary education have also helped in achieving the target.
He further said that the opening of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) in educationally backward blocks – where rural female literacy rates are lower than the national average – have also helped in improving the percentage of girls in schools.
KGBVs are residential schools which provide education from class 6 to 8 for girls belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Minorities and Below Poverty Line groups. According to government data, there are a total of 4,986 KGBVs in India, where 6.69 lakh girls are enrolled.
(Edited by Polomi Banerjee)
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