BHUBANESWAR: Even though the Government launched several programmes to improve the quality of school education in the State, more than 30 per cent students drop out from schools between Class 1 and 10.
According to official sources, 8,78,691 students had taken admission in Class one in 2007-08 academic year. But their number had come down to 6,98,267 by the time they reached Class VIII in 2014-15. The number of students further dwindled to 6,13,683 by the time they reached Class X in 2016-17. Despite the schemes, 2,65,278 students had left schools between Class I and X, which comes to 30.18 pc while about 20 pc left schools between Class I and VIII.
The situation has not improved much despite crores of rupees being utilised under Sarva Sikhya Abhijan (SSA) by the State Government with liberal funding from the Centre. Shortage of teachers and lack of infrastructure besides backwardness and poverty in many tribal-dominated areas are stated to be the reasons behind such a large number of school dropouts.
Meanwhile, the State Government has launched two programmes, ‘Ujwala’ and ‘Utkarsha’, to improve the standard of school education across the State with a focus to help students. Official sources maintained that about 10 lakh students have benefited from ‘Ujwala’ scheme.
Official sources maintained that Rs 4.5 crore was sanctioned by the Centre for the scheme in 2016-17 while Central assistance has come down to Rs 3 crore in 2017-18. Similarly, an allocation of Rs 6 crore has been made for ‘Utkarsa’ scheme for the two years. However, no teachers were appointed under the two schemes. The schemes will have to be implemented by the existing teachers at the primary level.
‘Ujwala’ scheme was launched last year with a target to improve quality of education in 57,567 primary and upper primary schools in the State. Sources said 17,13,821 students were covered under the scheme last year. Similarly, 7,29,759 students have been identified to be included under the scheme during the year.
Similarly, 1,04,518 students of 1672 high schools in eight KBK districts were covered under the ‘Utkarsha’ scheme last year. Sources said Sambalpur district has been included under the scheme during the year. As many as 68,537 students of 1124 high schools have been included under the scheme during the year.