The Odisha government has objected to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s statement on school dropout rate in the state and urged the Centre to release new figures for the academic year 2022-23 after adding the students taking admission in other vocational institutions other than traditional Plus-II course. The state government’s reaction came in response to Pradhan’s reply in Lok Sabha on Monday where he mentioned that the Class 10 dropout rate in Odisha in 2021-22 was 49.9 per cent, which was the highest among all the states in the country.
The objection was raised by Odisha School and Mass Education Minister Sudam Marndi on Wednesday in a letter to Pradhan. “The Union Minister has been requested that the data entered in UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education) for the Academic Year 2022-23 should be released at the earliest and the enrolment of students in other institutions not covered under UDISE+ like ITIs etc, should be integrated with the data available under UDISE+ for a pragmatic and practical assessment of drop-out rates and progress of state in education,” an official release said on Wednesday.
Stating that the written response of Pradhan has created confusion in mass media, Marndi in the letter expressed deep concern. The Odisha School and Mass Education minister has also drawn the attention of Pradhan to the fact that the present endorsement data captured through UDISE+ is itself not sufficient for calculation of drop-out rate as there are various schools/institutions /organisations and students enrolled in ITIs and correspondence courses that are under the purview of the state government, have been left uncovered in UDISE+ database.
“If those 1.4 lakhs students enrolled in different institutions other than the traditional +2 courses be taken into account, the drop-out rate of students in case of Odisha will drastically be reduced,” the letter said, adding that repeated submissions have been made by the state government in this regard. Moreover, it has also been mentioned that the UDISE+ database pertaining to the Academic Year 2022-23 has already been submitted to the Government of India months back, the letter said.
The state government maintained that the drop-out rate has drastically come down by approximately 20 per cent in the Academic Year of 2022-23, as per the data submitted in UDISE+. “The drop-out rate will further be reduced if those 1.4 lakhs students enrolled in different institutions other than the traditional +2 courses be taken into account,” the letter said.
“The Union minister has been requested that the data entered in UDISE+ for the Academic Year 2022-23 should be released at the earliest and the enrolment of students in other institutions not covered under UDISE+ like ITIs etc, should be integrated with the data available under UDISE+ for a pragmatic and practical assessment of drop-out rates and progress of state in education,” an official statement said quoting Marndi’s letter.
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