BENGALURU: Karnataka's net enrolment rate (NER) in primary education is one of the best in India. However, as students move on to higher secondary classes, the rank keeps falling, shows the U-DISE (unified district information system for education) data by the ministry of education.
NER is the number of pupils of a particular age group enrolled in corresponding levels of school education, expressed as a percentage of the population of the official age-group. Karnataka has an NER of 100, along with Assam, Delhi, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Punjab, Tripura and West Bengal in classes 1 to 5. In the elementary group -- classes 1-8-- Karnataka is second in the country at 97.1%. Punjab, Tripura and Delhi continue to lead with 100%, while Karnataka moved down by one rank when the upper primary section was included.
In the section where secondary classes are included, NER dropped to 72.3%. Punjab continued its lead with 82%, Kerala 74%, followed by Tripura at 73.8%. Karnataka and Delhi shared the fourth place, while the national figure is 50%. The drop-out rate jumps from 2% to 21% in boys and 15% in girls when they move from class 8 to class 9.
The NER takes a dismal figure at the higher secondary level-- 40%, pushing the state to the 11th position. "The Right to Education is only up to class 8. After the child reaches the age of 14, he is also out of the child labour laws. So, many of them drop out. U-DISe does not include those vocational and skill-based courses and therefore does not give the full picture," said AS Seetharamu, educationist.
"It's sad that 25% of our children are not even reaching class 8. Apart from extending RTE upward (to include till class 10) and downward (to include pre-primary), we should consider classes 1-10 as one unit. In Karnataka, we have higher primary schools till class 7. Children need to change schools for higher classes and many choose to drop out," said Niranjanaradhya VP, senior fellow, Centre for Child and Law.
Experts said the data is of 2019-20, in the pre-Covid era and the situation would have changed now.
