In Goa, boys exit secondary school twice as much as girls

PANAJI: At 12.1, the dropout rate for boys at Class IX and X level in Goa remained high for yet another year, as per data released by the Union education ministry recently. The dropout rate for boys was more than double that for girls, which was 5.5%, according to the statistics compiled under the unified district information system for education (UDISE) for 2021-22.
Goa's dropout rate for girls was much better than the national average of 12.3, while the state's rate for boys was only slightly better than the average of 13 nationally.
Till Class VIII, students benefit from the no-detention policy under the Right to Education Act. However, post that, in Class IX and X, the repetition rate in Goa was 1.9 for boys and 1.2 for girls, which was higher than the national average of 1.1 for both boys and girls.
Former chairperson of the Goa board of secondary and higher secondary education Jose Remedios Rebello said that some schools' tendency to keep students back in Class IX for better Class X public exam results could be responsible for forcing some students out of the regular school system.
"The Class X pass-out rate is very high in Goa as a result of the measures, and schools should actually not worry as much about students failing in Class X if they are promoted," said Rebello.
He, however, said that the dropout rate as recorded by the UDISE data may not reflect a fully correct picture.
"Many students opt to answer Class X through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), and after completing Class X through open school, they come back to Goa board to join Class XI. This percentage of boys joining NIOS is higher, because parents are less likely to finance a girl's education if she leaves regular schooling and joins NIOS. There is some discrimination there," said Rebello.
He said this trend of joining NIOS will reduce over the years as some new schemes like the national skills qualification framework offer the same flexibility in choosing subjects in a regular school as offered by the NIOS.
Other reasons for the dropout rate could be that earlier, some students who may have been slow learners, were possibly not identified by schools and given the benefit of the Goa board scheme for children with special needs. Also, as the data is from 2021-22, the dropout rate could be due to some migrants having gone back to their native place during the pandemic," Rebello said.
P R Nadkarni, another ex-chairperson of the board, said that there should be better tracking of data of students who go out of the regular schooling system to pursue education through other means like the NIOS.
"Some do not go out of the system, but join an ITI and work side-by-side. We do not have a system to track them properly yet. Some go for NIOS, which allows them flexibility in subjects as against regular schooling. The government should improve the tracking of these boys. Parents still do not want to send girls for ITI courses, but they are okay with boys joining them, therefore the dropout rate for boys may seem high," said Nadkarni.
He said that the dropout rate could also partially be caused by students forced to leave school due to the death of one or both parents, or due to parents losing income, during the pandemic.