Odisha Minister Rubbishes Class X Dropout Rate Released By Centre; Says Info Based On Old Data

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Wednesday claimed that the dropout rate in Class 10 was much lower in the state in 2021-22 and not 49.9 per cent as stated by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the Lok Sabha two days ago.

In a letter to Dharmendra Pradhan, School and Mass Education Minister Sudam Marndi said that the Centre’s data did not include the number of students admitted to various industrial training schools after passing the 10th standard.

Stating that the data released by the Centre was old, Marndi said it did not include the number of students admitted to different industrial training schools and the overall dropout rate at present (2022-23) in Odisha would be very low.

The Union Minister had informed the Lok Sabha on Monday that the dropout rate in Class 10 stands at 20.6 per cent as of 2021-22 with Odisha being the worst performing state in this regard followed by Bihar.

Marndi said that the information given by the Union Minister has been made basing on the facts and figures of UDISE+ data base pertaining to the academic year 2021-22.

He drew the attention of the Centre to the fact that the present endorsement data captured through UDISE+ is itself not sufficient for the calculation of drop-out rate as there are various schools and institutions and students enrolled in different like I.T.I.s & correspondence courses that are under the purview of the state government, have been left uncovered in UDISE+ data base.

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 Minister said.

Moreover, it has also been mentioned that the UDISE+ data base pertaining to the Academic Year 2022-23 has already been submitted to the Centre months back, he said.

Marndi said the drop-out rate has drastically come down by approximately 20 percentage 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., Marndi said, urging the Union Minister to release the latest data on dropout rate in the state.