School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra on Thursday admitted in the Assembly that the dropout rate at the secondary school level in the State is 16.49 per cent.
Replying to a question of BJP member Dillip Ray, the School and Mass Education Minister informed that the dropout in the primary school level is only 2.40 per cent which is lower than the national average.
In 2013-14, a total of 63,86,461 students in primary level and 12, 05,677 students in secondary school level have enrolled themselves, the Minister said.
Mishra said the Government was trying to check the dropout rate through the Sarva Shiksa Abhijan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamika Shiksa Abhijan (RMSA), besides various other schemes of the State Government.
He said in a bid to check the dropout rate and provide quality education to the students, the Government has decided to fill up 4,000 of the total 17,000 teacher posts lying vacant in various primary schools by March next.
The Minister said that in the secondary school level, 14.61 per cent and in primary school level 2.08 per cent girls were leaving their education mid way.
Stating that in the primary school level, 2.58 per cent of SC and 3.93 per cent of ST students are opting out of the school, Mishra said that the dropout rate among the SC was 16.34 per cent and 19.02 per cent among the ST students in the secondary school level.
The Minister said that in tribal areas, the Government had already taken steps to impart education in ten dialects and efforts were on to include 11 more dialects in 1,257 schools in the coming days.
The Minister claimed that the Government had achieved success in imparting quality education, checking dropout rate and improving infrastructure facilities.