The Union Education Minister provided information that in 2022, a total of 1,89,90,809 students participated in the Class 10 examination, out of which 29,56,138 students did not pass.
For the academic year 2021-22, the Class 10 dropout rate is recorded at 20.6 percent, with Odisha being the worst-performing state, followed by Bihar, as conveyed by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
In addition to Odisha and Bihar, other states grappling with high dropout rates include Meghalaya (33.5 percent), Karnataka (28.5 percent), Andhra Pradesh, and Assam with 28.3 percent each, Gujarat (28.2 percent), and Telangana (27.4 percent).
In a written response to the Lok Sabha, the Union Education Minister shared that out of the 1,89,90,809 students who appeared for the Class 10 examination in 2022, 29,56,138 students faced failure.
Regarding a question from DMK MP Kalanidhi Veeraswamy about the government’s awareness of the analysis indicating that around 3.5 million students discontinued their education in Class 10, the minister informed that the dropout rate was 49.9 percent in Odisha and 42.1 percent in Bihar.
Pradhan stated that the reasons for student failures depend on various factors such as non-attendance, difficulty in following school instructions, lack of interest in studies, the level of difficulty in question papers, inadequacy of quality teachers, and insufficient support from parents, teachers, and schools. He emphasized that education falls under the concurrent list of the Constitution, with the majority of schools falling under the jurisdiction of respective State and UT Governments.
States with dropout rates below 10 percent include Uttar Pradesh (9.2 percent), Tripura (3.8 percent), Tamil Nadu (9 percent), and no dropouts reported in Manipur. Other states in this category are Madhya Pradesh (9.8 percent), Himachal Pradesh (2.5 percent), Haryana (7.4 percent), and Delhi (1.3 percent).
While Assam has shown significant improvement over the last four years, reducing its dropout rate from 44 to 28.3 percent, Odisha has experienced a negative trend, increasing from 12.8 to 49.9 percent during the same period.
