E-Paper
34,035 students dropped out of higher edu institutions since 2019: Govt
According to the data provided by the ministry, out of the total students who dropped out, the maximum numbers were reported in central universities —17,454
Over 34,000 students dropped out from higher education institutions such as central universities, IITs, NITs, IIMs, and NITs, between 2019 and 2023, with nearly half of them belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class categories, the education ministry informed the Parliament on Wednesday.
Responding to a written question asked by Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi, minister of state for education Subhas Sarkar provided the data on the number of students dropping out of the higher education institutions while emphasizing that the majority of these students dropped out from postgraduate and PhD programmes.
According to the data provided by the ministry, out of the total 34,035 students who dropped out, the maximum numbers were reported in central universities (17,454), followed by Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) ( 8,139), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) (5,623), Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (1,046), Indian Institutes of Management (858), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) (803), and Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPAs) (112).
To be sure, while the data of all other institutions covered the period of 2019-23, it covered four years 2019-2022 in case of central universities and SPAs, which means the number of dropouts would effectively be higher than the figure provided.
The data further shows that 17,454 or 52% of the 32,186 students who dropped out were from SC (4423), ST (3774) and OBC (8602) categories.
In his response, Sarkar cited offers for placement in public sector enterprises and personal preference for better opportunities elsewhere, as major reasons behind the students dropping out. “The drop out in undergraduate programmes is attributed to withdrawal due to wrong choices filled, poor performance and personal and medical reasons,” he said.
The minister further said that higher education institutions have initiated a number of corrective measures to minimize the dropouts, which include appointment of advisors to monitor the academic progress of students, provision of additional classes for academically weaker students, peer assisted learning, counselling to de-stress students, psychological motivation, and extracurricular activities.
