60k students dropped out, over 2 lakh shifted to govt schools in Andhra Pradesh during Covid-19

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Andhra Pradesh saw over 2 lakh private school students between classes one to 12 enrolling into government schools while 60,253 students dropped out, most of them girls.

In the academic year 2020-21, a total of 3,57,873 students dropped out of schools or moved to other schools, The Indian Express reported. As per Education Department’s data, 2,02,599 students from private schools moved to government schools and 8,448 moved from government to private. As of now, the strength of government schools in the state is 72,33,040 and that of private schools is 10 lakh.

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Education Minister Audimulapu Suresh told IE, “The dropouts can be attributed to Covid-19 lockdowns, closure of schools for a long time, job or income loss of the main breadwinner, and migration to native places.” He added that the government is trying to trace the dropouts in this academic year to enroll them into the educational institutions again.

Along with Andhra Pradesh, other states are also showing a similar trend due to the economic distress caused by the pandemic.

“Due to loss of income, some parents can no longer afford to send their children to private schools and have enrolled them in government schools. Another reason is the improvement of infrastructure which has transformed government schools, attracting many students,” an Education Department official is quoted as saying in the report

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The dropout rate has increased in the districts of Andhra Pradesh, as per the report. In Visakhapatnam, 19,800 students dropped out in 2019-20 which increased to 36,016 in 2020-21. Similarly, in East Godavari, the numbers increased from 3,800 to 36,237 in the same period. In Kurnool, 10,000 students dropped out in 2019-20 which increased exponentially to 42,328 in 2020-21.

In the pandemic, hundreds of families shifted from towns and cities to villages, leading to a displacement of students, according to the officials of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.

The government has also launched a mobile application called Mana Badiki Podam. Teachers, anganwadi workers, and house-to-house surveyors upload the details of the dropouts and Children Info Drop Box helps the government track them.