School dropout rate in Himachal Pradesh amongst lowest in country

Himachal has lowest school dropout rate among all states in the country. As per the UDISE Plus 2023-24 report released by the Ministry of Education, the state has zero dropout rate in primary section, 0.6 in upper primary section and 4.9 in the secondary section. The dropout rate is much lower than the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana most states in the country.

The state has Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) of 14, better than most states. The lower PTR means teachers are able to develop healthy one-on-one mentoring and is able to offer insight and help that would be impossible in a larger classroom. The New Education Policy recommends a PTR of 30:1 at all levels of school education system.

Meanwhile, the average enrolment per school continues to be among the lowest in the country. The average enrolment per school is just 80, and only Mizoram, Meghalaya and Ladakh have lower enrolment numbers. In view of the enrolment, the government has shut down or merged around 1,100 schools over the last two years. It will result in higher average enrolment over due course of time. As per the report, 3,473 schools have just one teacher. To address the issue, the government has deputed staff that has been freed up after closing or merger of schools.

As per the report, nearly all schools have basic facility like functional toilets, drinking water facility, libraries, electricity, etc. But when it comes to providing facilities like computers, internet, smart class rooms, etc, Himachal is far behind the leading states. Only 47.5 per cent schools have computer facility and just 48.7 have internet facility.

According to the report, there are a total of 17,826 government and private schools in Himachal. The number of teachers stand at 1,01,131. As many as 14,26,412 students are enrolled in these schools. Of the total students, 60.8 per cent students are enrolled in primary classes, 14 per cent in upper primary and 10 per cent in secondary and 15.20 per cent in higher secondary.