BENGALURU: Boy students in Karnataka are dropping out of schools at an alarming rate, with the state ranking the highest in a list of states and union territories in the country with the highest dropout rates in education, taking into account the secondary level (standards IX to XII). As per the data, 18.1% of boy students at the secondary level for the 2025-2026 academic year dropped out.
The state’s indictment comes as per the recently released Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report for National Education Programme (NEP)-compliant schools, released by the union Ministry of Education’s Department of School Education and Literacy.
To put the state’s figures into context, the closest second to Karnataka’s nadir is Chhattisgarh with 18% of its boy students dropping out, followed by Ladakh (15.6%) and Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli (15%) amongst others. The overall dropout rate of Karnataka was hardly a respite, with the state ranked only second in the list of states and union territories in the country with the highest dropout rate in education, taking into account the secondary level (standards IX to XII), after only Ladakh. The state recorded a dropout rate of 14.3% for the 2025-2026 academic year, following Ladakh’s 14.8%.
Karnataka was also one of 12 states or union territories in the country to achieve a 100% rate of transition from the foundational stage (pre-standard III) to the preparatory stage (standards III to V). From the middle (standards Vi to VIII) to the secondary stage, however, the figure dwindled to 97.6%. Kerala was the only state to achieve a 100% transition rate in the aforementioned category.