The Tamil Nadu government has denied a recent revelation by the Centre that the school dropout rate in the state has seen a 100% rise at the secondary school level. Speaking at the state Assembly on Monday, KA Sengottaiyan, Minister for School Education, said that the data published by the Union Human Resources Development Ministry was incorrect.
According to one report in the Times of India, Minister Sengottaiyan said that the recent data released by the state government, on the school dropout rates in Tamil Nadu, was the accurate one. Refuting the HRD Ministry's data, he added that the state had written to the Centre. The state government has reportedly asked the basis for the findings by the Union Ministry. “There is no reply from the Centre till now,” he reportedly said.
Earlier this month, in response to a question from Lok Sabha MP Sudhakar Tukaram Shrangare, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said that Tamil Nadu had recorded a 100% rise in school dropout rates at the secondary school level.
ToI reported that in the Minister's reply, it was noted that the dropout rate, which stood at 8% in 2015- 2016 was 16.2% in 2017-18. The numbers were provided by the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE).
In 2016- 2017, the rate was at 10%. At the primary level, school dropout stood at 5.9% in 2017-2018.
According to The Hindu, Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said in his Budget speech last week that the dropout rate in the state had fallen by 0.8%. He also added that 29,740 of 30,104 students who had dropped out had been re-enrolled.
DMK chief MK Stalin slammed the state government over the Centre’s data, seeking the setting up of a review committee to probe the cause of school dropouts.