PANAJI
While Goa managed to achieve significant strides in reducing student dropout rate at the middle and secondary level, the figures witness a jump at the preparatory stage for the year 2023-24, according to UDISE data from the Ministry of Education.
The UDISE (Unified District Information System for Education) data for 2023-24 reveals a decline in dropout rates across different education levels. At the secondary level, the dropout rate decreased from 8.8% in 2022-23 to 7.8%, while at the middle level (Classes 6-8), it dropped from 1.7% to 1.1%.
However, at the preparatory stage, the dropout rate jumped from 0.3 per cent to 1.0 per cent.
The transition rate from preparatory stage to middle stage, reported 99.7 per cent students moving to middle level, while 97 per cent students cleared middle class to enter secondary stage.
At the same time, though, the State’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) remained above 100 per cent at both level, indicating some underage or overage or repeaters were enrolled at primary, upper primary, elementary and secondary classes, compared to 2022-23, the enrolment rate has dropped by over 4 per cent at elementary level and more than 7 per cent at the secondary level.
The data shows that Goa’s GER at middle school stood at 115.3 per cent as against 119.7 per cent while at the secondary level it was at 100.3 per cent. In 2022-23, 107.9 per cent was the GER at secondary level.
State’s Gross Enrolment Ratio -- that compares the enrolment in a specific level of education to the population of the age-group which is most age-appropriate for that level of education -- remained higher across all classes except secondary level.
The UDISE also reveals that at preparatory level, Goa has one teacher for every 15 students while at middle level the ratio is 1:14.
During the study year, State had 3,04,735 students across 1487 schools of which 1.48 lakh were girls while 1.57 lakh were boys. State had 14,594 teaching faculty members.
According to the data, 72.92 percent of the students study in aided schools, while government schools account for only 13.69 percent of the total pupil count
