At 20.6%, Punjab’s Class X dropout highest in North India

At 20.6%, Punjab’s Class X dropout highest in North India
New Delhi: Punjab saw the highest Class X dropout rate of 20.6 per cent among northern states during the 2021-22 academic session, according to data shared in the Lok Sabha by the Ministry of Education.

The rate was almost half at 9.5 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir and much lower in Ladakh (7.8 per cent), Haryana (7.4 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (2.5 per cent) and Delhi (1.3 per cent). Chandigarh recorded a zero dropout rate for the four academic years from 2018-19 to 2021-22.

Nationally, Odisha reported the highest rate of 49.9 per cent, followed by Bihar at 42.1 per cent. The national average stood at 20.6 per cent and 11 states and union territories had rates equivalent to or higher than this. The 11 states and UTs are Odisha, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab and Telangana.

Over the past four academic years, most northern states showed an improvement in dropout rates. Haryana witnessed a decline from 9.1 per cent in 2020-21 to 7.4 per cent in 2021-22. Himachal recorded a rate of 2.5 per cent in 2021-22, significantly lower than 13.5 per cent in 2020-21.

Punjab had a dropout rate of 25.5 per cent in 2020-21, which declined to 20.6 per cent in 2021-22. In 2019-20, the state had a comparatively lower rate of 11.38 per cent while it stood at 16.6 per cent in 2018-19. The information was provided by Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan in reply to a question asked by DMP MP Kalanidhi Veeraswamy regarding the Class X dropout rate in all states and UTs over the past four academic years.