West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar and Tripura are among more than a dozen States where the school dropout rate at secondary level was higher than the national average of 14.6 per cent, according to official data.
The central government has suggested these states to take special steps to reduce the dropout rate.
This information has been obtained from the minutes of the meetings of the Project Approval Board (PAB) under the Ministry of Education on the 'Samagra Shiksha' programme for 2022-23. These meetings took place between April and July with different states.
According to sources, the government wants to achieve 100 per cent Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) at the school level by 2030 as targeted in the new National Education Policy and considers dropout as a hindrance.
According to the PAB, the dropout rate in 2020-21 at the secondary level in Bihar was 21.4 per cent, Gujarat 23.3 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 23.8 per cent, Odisha 16.04 per cent, Jharkhand 16.6 percent, Tripura 26 per cent and Karnataka recorded 16.6 per cent.
According to the documents, the estimated number of children with special needs (CWSNs) enrolled in schools in Delhi during the relevant period was 61,051, of which 67.5 per cent dropped out or could not be identified. The PAB has asked the Delhi government to complete the work of bringing dropout children back into the mainstream school education on an expeditious basis.