Nearly 10% kids in Capital between ages 6 and 17 are out of school, Delhi socio-economic survey finds

Of nearly 10% children aged between 6 and 17 in the city who are out of school, the Delhi government’s socio-economic survey has found that the highest percentage of dropouts is between ages 16 and 17

Of nearly 10% children aged between 6 and 17 in the city who are out of school, the Delhi government’s socio-economic survey has found that the highest percentage of dropouts is between ages 16 and 17.

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“Of the total population, 22.15% are in the age group of 6-17 years. In this age group, 9.76% children are reported to be out of school i.e. dropout/discontinued/never attended…It has been noticed that the highest proportion of out of school children is reported as 33.55% in the age group of 16-17 years followed by 29% in 6-10 years, 18.92% in the age group 11-13 years and 18.53% in the age group of 14-15 years,” the report noted.

The highest percentage of dropouts or children not attending school (6.89%) has been reported in North district, which also has the highest percentage (5.30%) of children in the ‘never attended/never enrolled’ category.

The report on the socio-economic profile of residents of Delhi has been prepared on the basis of data of around 10 million individuals from about two million Delhi households collected between November 2018 and November 2019 by the state’s directorate of economics and statistics.

Addressing these concerns, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had said, “Struggling children who leave the system to pick up jobs outside is where we need to figure out how skill training can come into play, and how we can provide support to them.”

Around 52.54% of students in the age group 6-17 years are enrolled in schools run by Delhi government followed by 26.31% which study in private schools.

The report also found that only 55.4% of children below six years of age are attending anganwadi centres which provide supplementary nutrition as well as early childhood education to those from working-class families.

Delhi’s literacy rate meanwhile is higher than the national average as per the report which stated that effective literacy rate in the capital stood at 88.54%. The national literacy rate among persons (aged seven years and above) is around 77.7%, according to the 75th round of National Sample Survey (NSS). In rural areas, the literacy rate was 73.5% compared to 87.7% in urban areas.