Bhubaneswar, Sept. 25 (UDN): Odisha’s secondary school dropout rate declined to 14.1% in 2025-26, from 15% in the previous academic year, the state government informed the Odisha Assembly on Friday.
School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond, replying to a written question from Bhawanipatna MLA Sagar Charan Das, said the latest figures were based on UDISE+ data.
The data showed that the dropout rate had increased from 12.80% in 2023-24 to 15% in 2024-25, before registering a decline in the 2025-26 academic year.
Government Lacks Data on Post-Class X Enrolment
The minister also informed the House that the government did not have details on students who completed Class X in 2024-25 but did not enrol in Class XI.
The available data also does not indicate how many of these students subsequently joined ITIs, polytechnics, diploma or nursing courses, or enrolled through NIOS, SIOS and other educational programmes.
Over 2.16 Lakh Children Identified as Out of School
According to figures from the Odisha Shiksha Sarvekshan (OSS)/Child Tracking Survey, a total of 2,16,131 out-of-school children (OoSC) were identified across Odisha after excluding duplicate, test and invalid entries.
Of these, 79,996 children had been mainstreamed into education, while 1,36,135 remained to be mainstreamed, according to the district-wise data submitted to the Assembly.
Earning Pressure, Parental Reluctance Among Key Factors
The survey identified several reasons behind children leaving school. Earning compulsion, lack of awareness and unwillingness of parents emerged among the major factors recorded in the data.
As many as 26,932 children were reported to have dropped out because of earning compulsion, particularly in families where there was no other earning member.
Similarly, 23,449 cases were attributed to lack of awareness, while 59,656 cases were linked to parental unwillingness.
Together, these three factors accounted for 1,10,037 reported dropout cases across the state, highlighting the range of social and economic challenges associated with school discontinuation.
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