Amid 'alarming' drop-out rate, Bihar to track progress of every student till undergraduate level: Report

Education Department Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar said that there was an alarming drop in the number of student enrollments between Class 1 and Class 12

The Bihar Education Department is planning on introducing a "management innovation system" to track the progress of every student till the undergraduate level, according to a report by The Indian Express.

The management will reportedly focus on a "whole range of technical and professional courses" that a student can pursue after their Class 12 state board exams.

Expressing concern over the "worrisome" drop-out rate, Education Department Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar said, “We are getting data from science and technology (a nodal department for engineering courses), medical, pharmacy, agriculture, nursing and other professional and technical courses."

"Once we have the management innovation system in place, we can track every child and work out our plans accordingly to minimise drop-outs through counselling and reaching out to parents,” Kumar told the publication.

Kumar said that there was an alarming drop in the number of student enrollments between Class 1 and Class 12. He said that as per the 2018-19 state government data, Bihar schools enrolled a little over 24 lakh students in Class 1.

"But this number dropped to 15,37,628 in Class 10, a dip of about 9 lakh — a huge dip. At Class 12, this number comes down to 6,31,379 students,” he added.

The number further dropped to less than 4 lakh students after Class 12, the official said.

The report states that currently, there are about 78,000 schools in Bihar for Class 1 to Class 12 with 2.5 crore enrolled students.

All educational institutions in Bihar, including schools, colleges and coaching centres, reopened on January 4 after a gap of over nine months. Physical classes were held for students of standards 9-12 in schools and final year students in colleges. The institutions had been shut since March 14 due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

(With PTI inputs)