In the academic year 2021-22, Assam’s primary schools witnessed a doubling of dropout rates, as revealed by the state’s Education Minister, Ranoj Pegu, on Wednesday. He attributed this increase primarily to the impact of COVID-19 and the identification of fraudulent student enrollments.
At the secondary level, there was an improvement in the dropout rate, which decreased from 31 percent in 2020-21 to 20.3 percent in 2021-22. However, the dropout rate in lower primary schools rose to 6.02 percent in 2021-22, up from 3.3 percent the previous year, according to data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE).
In upper primary schools, the dropout rate increased from 4.6 percent in 2020-21 to 8.8 percent in 2021-22.
Minister Pegu disclosed that a survey had identified a total of 129,543 dropout students, out of which 101,602 had dropped out of school, while 27,941 had never been enrolled.
He attributed the rising dropout rates to the national impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely affected the education system, particularly primary education.
Pegu further explained that many schools had been reporting inflated student enrollment figures on the UDISE portal to gain various benefits, such as increased allocations for mid-day meals, additional funding for free school uniforms, and textbooks.
To combat this practice, the state government initiated a comprehensive data purification process for UDISE, prompting schools to stop reporting fake enrollments. During the data update process, schools reclassified the fraudulent enrollment data as dropout data.
Pegu expressed confidence that this data purification effort would continue and eventually stabilize the dropout rates.
Regarding the abolition of 8,000 vacant positions for permanent government school teachers, Pegu clarified that this was done for financial neutrality and to maintain discipline, as a significant number of contract teachers were already working under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA).
He highlighted that the government had offered contract teachers nearly identical benefits as permanent teachers, including equal pay, regular DA increases, and service until the age of 60, provided their annual performance appraisals were satisfactory.
Out of the total abolished posts, 4,285 were in lower primary schools, with the remainder in upper primary schools. Pegu pointed out that Assam government schools currently employ 2,21,247 teachers, including contractual staff, to educate 49,10,427 students, maintaining a satisfactory student-teacher ratio of 22:1.
Despite opposition parties and student groups criticizing the decision to eliminate 8,000 permanent teaching positions, Pegu defended the move, stating that there was no need for additional teachers at present, and efforts were underway to fill the vacant advertised posts, primarily in vernacular medium schools.
