Nearly a quarter of the tribe and one fifth of the Dalits came out of school in class IX and X in 2019-20 compared to only one of nine among students ‘general categories’.
In Assam, more than a third of all students came out at this stage, disclosing data from the integrated district information system that was just released for education (Udise).
Assam and Bihar are the only countries where more girls than boys come out at this level.
Class IX and X see the highest proportion of student dropouts.
At the primary level, the proportion comes out very small, mostly below 5%, except among tribal students.
At the top primary level, the proportion fell less than 2% in most countries restrictions several such as Bihar (9%), Jharkhand (8%) and Gujarat (5%) and among tribal and dalit students.
The state with the highest proportion of students who drop out of school in class IX and X are Assam (34.4%), MP (26.8%), Gujarat (24.1%) and Odisha (24%) in that order.
Interestingly, Delhi has a higher proportion to fall in class IX and X (21.5%) of all-Indian proportions (16.1%), and slightly higher than Bihar or Chhattisgarh.
Two states with a significant tribal population, Odisha and MP, have the highest proportion of dropout tribal students at the secondary level – 31.5% and 30.9%.
Gujarat and Maharashtra, who also have a considerable tribal population, also have more than 26% of tribal students who drop out of school at the level of IX and X class.
Assam has the highest proportion of students who drop out of school at the secondary level but the level of dropout between tribal students is lower than in all other categories.
It seems true in other northeastern states such as Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.
Punjab, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have the proportion of lowest dropout students at the secondary level.
But one in five tribal students in Kerala and one third of them in Tamil Nadu came out at the secondary level, showed the inability of the school system to maintain tribal students compared to those from other categories.
Among larger countries, Assam, Odisha and MP, followed by Jharkhand and Bihar in that order have the highest proportion of scheduled caste students who drop out of school at the secondary level.
Odisha has the most striking difference between general category students and the rest.
There is no dropout at the secondary level in the general category, while it is almost one third for each other category.
Gap is also very large in Jharkhand too.
In Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the dropout rate is higher for students of the general category at the secondary level than for other categories.