School dropouts: Goa gets a perfect zero

PANAJI

The government is, however, confronted with another challenge, as 673 children were still found "out-of-school" during the same academic year, even though these numbers have been on the decline.
The State's educational indicators' annual report for children in the age group of 6-14 years (Std 1 to 8) have revealed that dropout rates for students from Stds 1 to 8 was 0.7 percent in 2015-16, while it was nil in 2016-17.
Incidentally, the report had revealed that the State had come close to achieving a perfect zero during the academic year 2014-15. While education authorities managed to achieve a zero dropout rate among students from general communities, the dropout rate for SC students was 3.61 per cent and Scheduled Tribes students was 4.51 per cent.
In South Goa, which has a large number of students from the scheduled tribes, the government had taken concerted efforts to eliminate dropout figures among students from ST community.
In 2014-15, the dropout rate for students from the ST community in South Goa was 0.31 per cent and it rose to 0.86 per cent in 2015-16.
But while education authorities may be pleased by the zero dropout figure in the last academic year, they have found out that there are still a number of children who are classified as "out of school", or in other words, have never been to a school.
These "out of school" numbers are, incidentally, on the decline as educational indicators have revealed that 1,149 children were "out of school" in 2014-15, which dropped to 728 in 2015-16 and 673 in 2016-17.
According to an official involved in the report, efforts have been underway each year to eliminate these "out of school" students.
"These "out of school" students are mainly from the migrant communities who have no knowledge of any of the languages imparted as medium of instruction in our schools," said the official.