(a) the percentage of school drop-out rates overall as well as gender-wise individually in the year 2020-21 and steps taken by the Government to address the same;
(b) whether the Right to Education Act applies only to students belonging to the age group of 6-14 years as a result of which drop-out rates rise from 2.8 per cent to 13.1 per cent as the children turn 15; and
(c) the steps taken by the Government to address this issue?
MINISTER OF EDUCATION
(SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)
(a) to (c): As per Unified District Information System for Education+, 2019-20, the gender-wise annual average dropout rate at different levels is as under:
Gender
Primary
Upper Primary
Secondary
Boys
1.7
2.2
17.0
Girls
1.2
3.0
15.1
Total
1.5
2.6
16.1
Under Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha, which is an overarching scheme for school education covering all levels from pre-primary to senior secondary, financial assistance is provided to the States and UTs for various activities to reduce dropouts at secondary level, which include opening/strengthening of new schools up to senior secondary level, strengthening school infrastructure, setting up, up-gradation and running of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV) upto class 12, setting up of residential schools/hostels named Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Avasiya Vidyalayas, transport allowance, undertaking enrolment drives, seasonal hostels/ residential camps, provision of vocational education and ICT facilities in schools, etc,
financial assistance is also provided for aids and appliances for children with special needs.
Under Samagra Shiksha, for the first time in 2021-22, financial assistance upto Rs. 2000 per annum has been envisioned for supporting Out of School Children of age group of 16-19 years, belonging to socio economically disadvantaged groups, for completing their education through NIOS/SIOS, for accessing course materials and certification.
This Department has developed an online module for compiling the data of Out of School Children (OoSC) identified by each State/UT and their mapping with Special Training Centres (STC) on the PRABANDH Portal (http://samagrashiksha.in). The concerned State/UT validates the child wise information of the identified OoSC and STC uploaded by the concerned Block Resource Centre of the State for monitoring the progress of mainstreaming of OoSC. Also, Bridge Course Modules have been developed by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for bridging the learning gaps of Out of School Children studying in Special Training Centers (STC) under the provision of RTE Act, 2009.
Also, under National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme, scholarship is awarded to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue the study at secondary stage.
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