Odisha bucks national trend; school dropout rates fall, enrolments rise

Odisha’s state-run schools are witnessing a positive transformation as government initiatives appear to be reducing dropout rates significantly. 

According to the latest Unified District Information System for Education Plus (U-DISE Plus) report from the Ministry of Education, primary school dropout rates decreased from 10.29% in the 2022-23 academic year to 9.11% in 2023-24.

Odisha has seen an influx of over 100,000 new students enrolling for the current academic year. This increase in numbers shifts Odisha’s direction against the national trend, where overall student enrolment reduced by approximately 3.7 million. Moreover, the report highlights the reduction of schools with zero enrolment from 33 to just eight.

There are currently 7.7 million students in 61,693 primary schools throughout Odisha, with around 5.2 million students attending 48,671 government schools. Comparatively, 6,042 private institutions are educating about 1.4 million students.

Despite the progress, challenges remain as 1,095 schools operate with only a single teacher. 

In response, Opposition BJD credited this success to strong governance and educational policy during the tenure of Naveen Patnaik’s governance, asserting that they have bolstered confidence among parents regarding state-run schooling. 

“The current (BJP) government is saying that they are only a six-month baby. It suggests that they have not done anything for the reduction in the dropout rate. The former government had taken many initiatives like providing mid-day meals, 5T transformation of schools and distributing cycles among students to decrease the dropout rate in the State,” said BJD MLA Manohar Randhari.

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However, Odisha School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond commended his government’s efforts and pointed to new strategies such as the ‘Shahid Madho Singh Scholarship Scheme’ designed to sustain this progress. He also targeted BJD by saying that the former government has done nothing for the development of education in the State except colouring the walls of the schools.

“Our government has started the Shahid Madho Singh Scholarship Scheme for which the dropout rates have reduced significantly in the State. The credit definitely goes to the Mohan Majhi government. The previous government has done nothing except colouring the walls of the schools. Many schools were closed across the State during their tenure and as a result, several students suffered,” said Gond.

Meanwhile, experts underline an improvement in hiring qualified teachers as pivotal to the State’s strategy for delivering quality education.

“The decrease in the dropout rate suggests that the confidence of the parents in the government-run schools has increased. The main reason behind it is that the State government has appointed 16,000 teachers,” said educationist Dr Raghunath Panda.