The total dropout rate in Karnataka has increased between the academic years of 2020-21 and 2021-22, specifically in the primary and upper primary level of education, according to an analysis report of the UDISE+ released by the Child Rights and You (CRY).
The report also says that there has been a declining trend in the State when it comes to the number of primary (25,554 to 24,470), upper primary (31,802 to 30,924) and secondary schools (15,388 to 15,385) between 2018-19 and 2021-22. However, in the same period, the trend was reversed when it came to higher secondary schools (5,489 to 5,671).
On both national and State levels, there has been an increase in the total enrolment (pre-primary to grade 12) of students with the numbers going up from 1.18 crore in 2020-21 to 1.2 crore in 2021-22 in Karnataka. While similar trends can be observed in all other levels, only at the pre-primary level, there has been a decline of roughly 10,000 students between the two academic years, says the report.
It can be seen that there has been some improvement in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in the State. At the primary level though, the GER for boys has gone down, while it has increased for girls.
At secondary level
“If we look at Karnataka, though the total enrolment and GER at every level of education has increased in the State between 2020-21 and 2021-22, the recently released UDISE+ 2021-22 report revealed that the dropout rate is highest in the secondary level at 14.7%, which is higher than all-India’s 12.6% in 2021-22. Also, an analysis of the last four-year UDISE+ data highlights that the number of schools has decreased. It is absolutely crucial that infrastructure along with the number of schools are given equal priority so that children do not have to miss school or drop out due to lack of access to basic necessities that would take their focus away from education,” said John Roberts, regional director - South, CRY.
