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New Indian Express
28-06-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
Delhi schools told to form special cells for out-of-school children
NEW DELHI: In a major move to address the rising number of out-of-school children in Delhi, the city government has directed all schools under the Department of Education (DoE), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Cantonment Board (DCB), and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to establish Special Admission Cells (SACs). These dedicated cells will focus on enrolling children who have never been to school, including those with disabilities and those who dropped out due to socio-economic reasons. Education officials have described the initiative as a 'targeted rescue mission for education' aimed at reintegrating vulnerable students into the formal education system. The SACs will be responsible for not only admitting these children but also for ensuring they remain in school, track their attendance, and support their academic progress. Each SAC will be composed of the school's head, the admission in-charge, a vocational guidance counselor or an expert with similar skills, and the Cluster Resource Centre Coordinator (CRCC), who will provide data on out-of-school children (OoSC). The goal is to simplify admission procedures, counsel parents and children, and address any barriers preventing enrollment. 'The idea is to not just admit them, but to track their attendance, support their learning, and ensure they don't fall through the cracks again,' said a senior education department official. Key responsibilities of the SACs will include time-bound admissions, tracking academic performance and attendance, and ensuring the retention of enrolled children. The cells will also meet regularly to assess the progress of out-of-school children, update data with the UDISE Plus system, and identify and address dropout cases by providing targeted support to students and their families. Additionally, SACs will provide a bi-weekly report to the headquarters on the status of admissions, attendance, textbooks, uniforms, assessment, and plans for mainstreaming these children into the formal education system. Government estimates suggest that hundreds of children in Delhi remain outside the education system due to work, migration, or a lack of awareness about their educational rights.
The Hindu
18-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Centre asks States to take steps to check high secondary school dropout rates
School dropout rates at the secondary level were found to be high in a dozen States, including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Maharashtra, according to a report by a department of the Education Ministry. Also Read | School dropout rates go from bad to worse in Bihar and Assam The central government has suggested that the States take special steps to reduce the dropout rate as laid out in the National Education Policy, 2020. Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand and Punjab were also found to have high school dropout rates. The information on dropout rates at the secondary school level was obtained from the minutes of the meetings of the Project Approval Board (PAB), which comes under the Ministry of Education. The meetings Samagra Shiksha programme for 2025-26 were held between April and May this year with different states. According to officials, the government wants to achieve a 100% Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) at the school level by 2030 as targeted in the NEP, 2020 and considers dropout as a hindrance. According to the PAB report, the dropout rate in 2023-24 at the secondary level in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tripura, Karnataka, Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu remains an area of concern. The Centre has advised these states to initiate a special enrolment drive in the form of door-to-door surveys in school catchment areas to identify out-of-school children (OoSC) and to ensure their admissions. In Bihar, as per the report, there were "large variations" in the reporting of data, especially on OoSC on the PRABANDH portal. The state was directed to initiate a special enrolment drive with the involvement of school management committees to ensure the identification and admission of all OoSC. The report said 57.06 per cent of school students in Delhi study in government-run schools which make up 48.99 per cent of schools in the national capital. The PAB expressed concern at the enrolment rate in government schools and suggested that Delhi should prioritise the improvement of Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) -- both measures of participation in education -- at higher secondary level in the coming years. In West Bengal, the annual dropout rate at the secondary school level is 17.87%. The state was advised to check the data and work on factors responsible for the high dropout rate. In Tamil Nadu, the dropout rate at the secondary level — 7.7% — needs to be addressed. The state needs to improve on its 82.9 per cent Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at the higher secondary level and ensure 100 per cent as aimed in NEP. In Karnataka, the dropout rate at secondary levels — 22.1% — is higher than the national average for secondary — 4.1% — and therefore, needs to be addressed, the report said.
Hindustan Times
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Centre asks states to take steps to check high secondary school dropout rates
New Delhi, School dropout rates at the secondary level were found to be high in a dozen states, including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, according to a report by a department of the Education Ministry. The central government has suggested that the states take special steps to reduce the dropout rate as laid out in the National Education Policy, 2020. Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand and Punjab were also found to have high school dropout rates. The information on dropout rates at the secondary school level was obtained from the minutes of the meetings of the Project Approval Board , which comes under the Ministry of Education. The meetings Samagra Shiksha programme for 2025-26 were held between April and May this year with different states. According to officials, the government wants to achieve a 100 per cent Gross Enrolment Rate at the school level by 2030 as targeted in the NEP, 2020 and considers dropout as a hindrance. According to the PAB report, the dropout rate in 2023-24 at the secondary level in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tripura, Karnataka, Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu remains an area of concern. The Centre has advised these states to initiate a special enrolment drive in the form of door-to-door surveys in school catchment areas to identify out-of-school children and to ensure their admissions. In Bihar, as per the report, there were "large variations" in the reporting of data, especially on OoSC on the PRABANDH portal. The state was directed to initiate a special enrolment drive with the involvement of school management committees to ensure the identification and admission of all OoSC. The report said 57.06 per cent of school students in Delhi study in government-run schools which make up 48.99 per cent of schools in the national capital. The PAB expressed concern at the enrolment rate in government schools and suggested that Delhi should prioritise the improvement of Gross Enrolment Ratio and Net Enrolment Ratio both measures of participation in education at higher secondary level in the coming years. In West Bengal, the annual dropout rate at the secondary school level is 17.87 per cent. The state was advised to check the data and work on factors responsible for the high dropout rate. In Tamil Nadu, the dropout rate at the secondary level 7.7 per cent needs to be addressed. The state needs to improve on its 82.9 per cent Gross Enrolment Ratio at the higher secondary level and ensure 100 per cent as aimed in NEP. In Karnataka, the dropout rate at secondary levels 22.1 per cent is higher than the national average for secondary 14.1 per cent and therefore, needs to be addressed, the report said.
Time of India
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
UP records highest transition rate from secondary to senior secondary schools
Lucknow: With a transition rate of 76.7% from secondary to senior secondary, Uttar Pradesh not only leads the country but also surpasses the national average of 71.5%, according to the latest report from the Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting held under the Union Ministry of Education for the academic session 2025-26. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now However, the state needs to work towards improving the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) at all levels—primary, upper primary, and secondary, says the report. While GER is the total enrollment in a particular level of school education, regardless of age, NER is the total number of pupils enrolled in a particular level of school education who are of the corresponding official age. Currently, the GER at the primary level stands at 82.9%, upper primary at 78.8%, secondary at 63.8%, and higher secondary at 53.2%. The NER at primary, upper primary, secondary, and higher secondary levels stand at 67%, 49.4%, 30.7%, and 23.8% respectively. The report shows that the state govt has committed to filling the vacant posts of teachers at all levels by March 2026. At present, 22.7% (1.81 lakh) posts are vacant at the elementary level, 40.4% (3,872) at the secondary level, and 59.7% (8,714) at the senior secondary level. Similarly, 16.7% of academic posts are lying vacant in the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and 42.7% in District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs). Reiterating the issue of single-teacher schools, UP was asked to take corrective action to ensure an adequate number of teachers in all schools, particularly at the elementary level. The state has 2,586 primary and 3,109 upper primary single-teacher schools. Likewise, the number of schools with less than 30 enrolments is quite high, with 7,037 primary and 1,859 upper primary schools. Moreover, the number of schools with less than 15 enrolments has increased substantially at the primary level, from 816 in 2022-23 to 1,329 in 2023-24, the report pointed out. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Nevertheless, UP has shown a decline in zero-enrolment schools, and the number of schools with an adverse pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) has decreased. The report has lauded the state's efforts towards mainstreaming Out of School Children (OoSC) with 100% coverage. For 2025-26, 68,913 OoSC have been identified. The report suggested that state officials initiate a special enrollment drive in the form of door-to-door surveys in school catchment areas to identify OoSC. To further enhance the accuracy of this identification, the state was also advised to analyse complementary data from sources such as the Registrar of Births and Deaths, Anganwadi centres, and the PM Poshan scheme. In addition, the report finds that almost 70% of the secondary and senior secondary schools do not have ICT labs and smart classrooms. Almost 40% of schools do not have subject-specific labs like physics, chemistry, and biology.
Hindustan Times
01-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Over 10,000 unrecognised schools in Bihar, Jharkhand: Education Ministry
New Delhi: Jharkhand and Bihar together have over 10,000 unrecognised schools enrolling over 1.6 million students and having more than 88,000 teachers, according to the Union education ministry. While Jharkhand has the 'highest' 5,879 unrecognised schools in the country with an enrolment of 8,37,897 students and 46,421 teachers, Bihar has 4,915 such schools with an enrolment of 7,75,704 students and 42,377 teachers. During Project Approval Board (PAB) meetings for the approval of budget and plans under Samagra Shiksha scheme for 2025-26 with the state officials between March and April 2025, the ministry stated that unrecognised schools are violating section 19 of the Right To Education (RTE) Act 2009 which requires pre-existing schools to meet prescribed norms within three years of the Act's commencement. 'The Act also mandates that if such schools fail to fulfil the norms, the recognition shall be withdrawn, and the school shall cease to function,' said the minutes of the meetings uploaded on the ministry's website. The ministry has asked both the states to 'take further course of action and issue suitable instructions to the authorities concerned to recognise these unrecognised schools or to take appropriate action as deemed fit at the earliest.' The ministry has quoted data for unrecognised schools in Bihar and Jharkhand from Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE)+ 2023-24 report. However, the data on unrecognised schools is not publicly available in the said report released in January this year. The education ministry officials did not respond to HT's queries on clarification. 'These [Unrecognised] schools started functioning before the implementation of RTE Act 2009. The state government has already issued directions for recognition of such schools. We have formed district-level recognition committees for recognition of such schools,' Sachidanand Diyendu Tigga, administrative officer at Jharkhand education project council told HT. According to the minutes of the PAB meetings, the ministry has also flagged 'large variation' in reporting of data about out-of-school children (OoSC) by Bihar and Jharkhand on the education ministry's Project Appraisal, Budgeting, Achievements and Data Handling System (PRABANDH) portal and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) survey. The Centre describes an OoSC as a child aged six to 14 years, who has never been enrolled in an elementary school or has remained absent from school after enrolment without prior intimation for 45 days. OoSC, therefore, include both never enrolled in schools and the dropouts. Data for OoSC is uploaded by states on PRABANDH portal, the online system used to monitor the implementation and progress of Samagra Shiksha, a shared scheme between the Centre and states supporting public schools with a funding ratio of 60:40. According to the NSSO, 'never enrolled' children are those who have never attended any school or formal educational institution. In Jharkhand, the PRABANDH portal recorded 37,409 Out-of-School Children (aged 6 to 19 years) for 2023–24. In contrast, the NSSO survey for 2022–23 reported 1,07,639 'never enrolled' children in the 6 to 14 age group. In Bihar, PRABANDH data for 2023–24 showed 33,285 OoSCs, while the NSSO reported a significantly higher figure of 6,27,763 'never enrolled' children for 2022–23. The ministry advised both the states to 'monitor the data uploaded on the portal by a responsible officer under the supervision of the State Project Director (SPD).' The ministry also directed both the states to initiate a special enrolment drive with full involvement of school management committees to ensure identification and admission of all OoSC. Tigga said, 'We will look into discrepancies in the number of OoSCs. We are running the campaign 'back to school' to enroll those students who are not going to the schools.'
