PANAJI
Goa further reduced its school dropout rates in 2025-26, with the biggest improvement seen at the secondary level. The State also continued to perform better than the national average at the primary, middle and secondary levels, according to the Union Education Ministry’s UDISE+ data released on Tuesday.
The secondary school dropout rate fell sharply from 8.1 per cent in 2024-25 to 6.4 per cent in 2025-26, well below the national average of 9.5 per cent. At the primary level, the dropout rate declined from 0.4 per cent to 0.2 per cent, compared with the national average of 0.3 per cent. The only increase was at the middle school level, where the dropout rate rose slightly from 0.8 per cent to 1.1 per cent. Even so, Goa remained well below the national average of 3.6 per cent.
The UDISE+ report also showed improvements in school functioning. Goa reported no schools with zero enrolment and no single-teacher schools during the academic year.
Despite these gains, the Union Ministry of Education has asked the Goa government to step up efforts to identify and track children who have left the formal education system.
During the Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan held in May, the Ministry directed the State to carry out a comprehensive survey to identify Out-of-School Children (OoSC) and strengthen its monitoring system.
According to data submitted by the Centre in the Rajya Sabha earlier this year, Goa recorded 196 Out-of-School Children during the 2025-26 academic year, including 72 girls.
