“The fact presented by Union Minister Dharmendra on drop-out in Odisha is misleading”
Minister, School & Mass Education, Odisha writes letter to the Union Minister expressing the deep concern
“If, those 1.4 lakhs students enrolled in different institutions other than the traditional +2 courses be taken into account, the drop-out rate of students in case of Odisha will drastically be reduced. “
Bhubaneswar(Kalinga Voice) :The written response of Sri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Union Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship of Government of India to queries from M.P., DMK, Kalanidhi Veerswamy has created confusion in Mass-Media. In response to this Sj. Sudam Marndi, Minister, School & Mass Education, Odisha has written a letter to the Union Minister expressing the deep concern of the State Government as the written response by Union Minister has been made basing on the facts & figures of UDISE+ data base pertaining to the Academic Year 2021-22.
Citing the D.O. No.23-7/2002-State, dated 23rd March, 2023 from the Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Education, Department of School Education & LR, Minister, Sri Marndi has drawn the attention of the Union Government to the fact that the present endorsement data captured through UDISE+ is itself not sufficient for the calculation of drop-out rate as there are various schools/institutions/organisations and students enrolled in different like I.T.I.s & correspondence courses that are under the purview of State Government, have been left uncovered in UDISE+ data base. If, those 1.4 lakhs students enrolled in different institutions other than the traditional +2 courses be taken into account, the drop-out rate of students in case of Odisha will drastically be reduced. Repeated submissions have been made by SPD, OSEPA in this regard Moreover, it has also been mentioned that the UDISE+ data base pertaining to the Academic Year 2022-23 has already been submitted to the Government of India months back.
It is pertinent to mention here that due to the incessant thrust on education under the visionary leadership of our Hon’ble Chief Minister, the drop-out rate has drastically come down by approximately 20 percentage in the Academic Year of 2022-23, as per the data submitted in UDISE+. The drop-out rate will further be reduced if those 1.4 lakhs students enrolled in different institutions other than the traditional +2 courses be taken into account.
The Union Minister has been requested that the data entered in UDISE+ for the Academic Year 2022-23 should be released at the earliest and the enrolment of students in other institutions not covered under UDISE+ like I.T.I.s etc should be integrated with the data available under UDISE+ for a pragmatic and practical assessment of drop-out rates and progress of State in Education.
