National Education Policy 2020: How is it going to reduce high drop-out numbers?

New Delhi, 8 August 2020: Even though India has achieved almost universal enrollment in elementary education, a significant number of children fail to complete their education and are compelled to leave it in between. Major reason for boys to dropout is financial stress at home while for girls it is the domestic work burden. Boys leave their school to earn livelihood while girls dropout to do household work. Though National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recognises the crisis but how is it going to change this trend?  

Increasing number of dropouts from school has received special mention in the much debated NEP, released on July 30, 2020. It says, "Through initiatives such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (now the Samagra Shiksha) and the Right to Education Act, India has made remarkable strides in the recent years in attaining near-universal enrolment in elementary education. However, the data for later grades indicates some serious issues in retaining children in the schooling system."

The GER for Grades 6-8 was 90.9%. While for Grades 9-10 and 11-12 it was only 79.3% and 56.5%, respectively, says the policy report underlining a crucial fact that significant proportion of enrolled students drop out after Grade 5 and especially after Grade 8. GER denotes enrolment as a percent of the population of corresponding age group.  

As per the 75th round household survey by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in 2017-18, the number of out of school children in the age group of 6 to 17 years is 3.22 crore. Further, the policy report highlights that children coming from marginalized group have more chance to leave the school without completing their education. PRS Legislative Research presents an analysis of dropouts from different groups in India.

Source: PRS Legislative Research

It says, "For all groups indicate decline in GER as we move from primary to senior secondary for all groups. This decline is particularly high in case of Scheduled Tribes.  Further, we analyse the reason for dropping out from school education.  Data suggests that the most prominent reason for dropping out was: engagement in domestic activities (for girls) and engagement in economic activities (for boys)." 

Major reasons for dropping out (Class 1-12) for 2015-16

Source: PRS Legislative Research

The NEP admits that one of the primary goals of the schooling system must be to ensure that the children are enrolled in and are attending school. The NEP says that it will be a top priority to bring these children back into the educational fold as early as possible, and to prevent further students from dropping out, with a goal to achieve 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio in pre-school to secondary level by 2030. But, how can it be achieved?

The policy recommends strengthening of existing schemes and policies which are targeted for such socio-economically disadvantaged groups (for instance, schemes for free bicycles for girls or scholarships) to tackle dropouts. Further, it recommends setting up special education zones in areas with significant proportion of such disadvantaged groups.  A gender inclusion fund should also be setup to assist female and transgender students in getting access to education, it says.

What measures does NEP suggest

• Provide effective and sufficient infrastructure so that all students have access to safe and engaging school education at all levels from pre-primary school to Grade 12.
• Special care shall be taken to ensure that no school remains deficient on infrastructure support
• Building additional quality schools in areas where they do not exist, and providing safe and practical conveyances and/or hostels, especially for the girl children
• Alternative and innovative education centres will be put in place in cooperation with civil society for children of migrant labourers etc
• Carefully tracking students, as well as their learning levels
• Counsellors or well trained social workers will continuously work with students and their parents
• Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Programmes offered by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and State Open Schools will be expanded and strengthened for meeting the learning needs of young people in India who are not able to attend a physical school.
• Both government as well as non-governmental philanthropic organisations interested to build schools will be encouraged to consider local variations  like culture, geography, and demographics