Lok Sabha Question No. 3858 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-19
Subject: School Dropouts
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: RAJU ALIAS DEVAPPA ANNA SHETTI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.†3858 TO BE ANSWERED ON 19.03.2018

## School Dropouts

†3858. SHRI RAJU SHETTY:

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the percentage of dropout students belonging to Muslim and Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes is much higher than national average according to any recent survey;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor; and
- (c) the specific efforts being made by the Government to reduce/eliminate the percentage of dropping out students of these categories?

## A N S W E R MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCEDEVELOPMENT

## (SHRI UPENDRA KUSHWAHA)

- (a) &  (b)  As  per  Unified  District  Information  System  for  Education  (U-DISE)  managed  by NIEPA,  average  annual  drop-out  rate  of    students  belonging  to  Muslim  and  Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes are given in the table below:

## Average Annual Drop-out Rate

Source: U-DISE 2015-16 Report.

| Level         |   All Categories |   Scheduled Caste |   Scheduled Tribes |   Muslim |
|---------------|------------------|-------------------|--------------------|----------|
| Primary       |             4.13 |              4.46 |               6.93 |     6.54 |
| Upper-Primary |             4.03 |              5.51 |               8.59 |     9.46 |
| Secondary     |            17.06 |             19.36 |              24.68 |    24.12 |

Major  reasons  for  drop-out  as  per  the  National  Family  Health  Survey  -  IV  conducted  by International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), India (designated as the nodal agency by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of India), for children between  age-group  6-17  years  and  as  per  the  National  Sample  Survey  (NSS)  71 st round (January-June,  2014)  Report  on  'Social  Consumption:  Education'  of  Ministry  of  Statistics and Programme Implementation are

-  Not interested in studies
-  Engage in Economic Activities.
-  Costs too much / Financial constraints
-  Required for house hold work/ Engage in Domestic Activities
-  Further education not considered necessary
-  School too far away
-  Did not get admission
-  Repeated failures
-  Marriage
- (c) The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of SarvaShikshaAbhiyan (SSA) provides assistance to State Governments and UTs to ensure quality elementary education for all children. Preference for opening of school is given to tribal areas, and areas with high concentration of SC, ST and minority population.

The Centrally sponsored scheme of RashtriyaMadhyamikShikshaAbhiyan (RMSA) envisages universalizing access to secondary schools by providing a secondary school within a reasonable distance (5 kilometres) of every habitation, improving quality of education through making all secondary schools conform to prescribed norms and removal of socio-economic barriers.  Under  RMSA,  financial  assistance  is  provided  to  reduce  dropout  and  to  increase enrolment especially of students of SC, ST, Minority categories and girls at secondary stage.

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