According to a Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report More boys dropped out of school than girls at secondary level in India in 2019-20. nearly 30% of students in the country do not transit from the secondary to the senior secondary level.

More boys dropped out of school at the secondary level as well as in primary classes (1 to 5), while the number of girls dropping out of school in the upper primary classes (6-8) was higher than that of the boys in 2019-20.

The dropout rate for boys in primary classes was 1.7% as against the girls’ 1.2%. Similarly, the dropout rate for boys was higher in secondary classes (18.3%) than for girls (16.3%).

In upper primary classes, the dropout rate for boys (1.4%) was less than that for girls (2.2%).

The report revealed that there are 19 States and Union Territories where the dropout rate at the secondary level (classes 9 and 10) is higher than the all-India rate (17.3%), with States such as Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh having a dropout rate of over 25%. There are four States that recorded a dropout rate of over 30%.

While a majority of the States from the northeastern and eastern regions have a high dropout rate, Delhi too has a dropout rate of over 20%.

Along with Punjab (which has the lowest dropout rate of 1.5%), the States and Union Territories with a less than 10% dropout rate are Chandigarh (9.5%), Kerala (8%), Manipur (9.6%), Tamil Nadu (9.6%) and Uttarakhand (9.8%).

Comparatively, these are also the States and Union Territories with the highest promotion rate at the secondary level, with Punjab, Manipur and Kerala having a promotion rate of over 90%.

According to the report, the overall dropout rate of girls is 2% less than that of boys.

Punjab registered a zero dropout rate for girls, while Assam recorded the highest dropout rate (35.2%) at the secondary level. There are six states and Union Territories where the dropout rate for boys is over 30%. For States such as Goa, the boys’ (21.2%) dropout rate is nearly 10% higher than that of the girls (11.8%).

• More than 80% schools in India in 2019-20 had functional electricity. This is an improvement by more than 6% over the previous year 2018-19.

• Number of schools having functional computers increased to 5.2 lakh in 2019-20 from 4.7 lakh in 2018-19.

• Number of schools having internet facility increased to 3.36 lakh in 2019-20 from 2.9 lakh in 2018-19.

• More than 90% schools in India had handwash facility in 2019-20. This is a major improvement, as this percentage was only 36.3% in 2012-13.

• More than 83% schools had electricity in 2019-20, an improvement by almost 7% over the previous year, 2018-19. In 2012-13, about 54.6% schools had electricity.

• More than 82% schools conducted medical check-up of students in 2019-20, an increase by more than 4% compared to previous year 2018-19. In 2012-13, about 61.1% schools conducted medical checkups.

• More than 84% schools in India had a library/reading room/ reading corner in 2019-20, an improvement of nearly 4% compared to the previous year. In 2012-13, about 69.2% schools had library/ reading room/ reading corner.