Sources say need to analyse how dropout data was collected

Bengaluru : There has been a significant decrease of over 67% in the number of children who dropped out of schools in the academic year 2022-23 compared to the immediate last year, according to data from the primary and secondary education department in Karnataka.

The Government claims that only 5,945 children’s were out of school during the mentioned period, Which is the lowest figure in the last five years, while the number of out of school children for 2021-22 stood at 18,461. Which means together between 2018-19 and 2022-23, more than 57,000 students were out of school, as per the data presented in legislative council by primary and secondary education Minister Madhu Bangarappa.

 Bangarappa said, “ Migration, family disputes, health issued physical disability and puberty among girl students are the major reasons for dropouts, while children from the tribal families orphans, Nomads, street children or children of rag pickets are also prone to drop ping out .”

Bangarappa also said that, “When you tell the court that so many children are not in school, they (government) have a responsibility to identify such children and bring them back to school. This could be one reason for mismatch in numbers. The number of children enrolling the government schools is declining. But official data for out of school children shows that the government is bringing back a lot of them, the number don’t match. A cohort analysis is required and there should be honesty while displaying this number in the public domain.” He added.

 Bangarappa further added,  the House that headmasters/head mistresses have been tasked with ensuring the students don’t drop out, aside from various other officials at the hobli cluster, sub-district and district levels, He said that government has released Rs 11 lakh in the academic year 2022-23 and round Rs 10 crore in past five  years to ensure that children’s don’t drop out.

 Quoting Sources from private schools says, “The number released by the government is a low figure which if correct, is something that should please everyone, particularly after that the lockdown did to children’s education.  But it is important to analyse how the data was collected and if there are any gaps.”