Kerala sees drop in school dropout rate

Kerala's general education minister said that making schools hi-tech helped lowering the dropout rate

Kerala possessing the lowest school drop out rate among Indian states has witnessed a further drop to 0.11 per cent in 2019-2020.

While the dropout rate in the state was 0.22 per cent in 2016-17, in the next two years it came down to 0.16 per cent and 0.12 per cent.

Kerala general education minister C Raveendranath told the Assembly on Monday that various initiatives to make schools hi-tech indeed helped in bringing down the drop out rate.

The 2019-20 data published in the latest Economic Review showed that the drop out rate at the High school level was 0.15 per cent, upper primary was 0.06 per cent and lower primary was 0.11 per cent. The drop out rate was higher at high-range districts of Wayanad and Idukki at 0.50 per cent and 0.30 per cent respectively.

As per the MHRD report on Educational Statistics at a Glance- 2018, the all-India average dropout rate of primary students was 4.13 per cent while it was 4.03 per cent in upper primary and 17.06 per cent in secondary levels, said the economic review.