Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has slammed educational authorities for Failure to have tracking system in place to check school drop outs, even as 253 students were dropped out from 2015-20.
The test check of 42 schools revealed that 253 students from 19 Government and aided elementary schools dropped out during 2015-20.
“The reasons for dropout of children as stated by the in-charge of concerned schools were migration of students to other states, not being interested in studies, health and family problems,” the CAG report states
The report further states that the SPD, GSS did not provide the number of dropped out students at the State level in class I to class VIII during 2015-20 due to non-availability of such data.
Audit further noticed that the GSS did not put in place Student Data Management Information System (SDMIS) to track the schooling status of students throughout the school education stage so as to achieve the goal of zero drop outs from pre-school to elementary school.
This indicated that GSS did not have any mechanism to monitor dropped out children from schools at the State level.
“There is no system in existence to track these drop out students and hence the schools could not furnish evidence for the reasons stated above. Thus, GSS could not ensure retention of all students in schools till completion of elementary education, leading to deprival of elementary education to dropout students and non-achievement of universal access to elementary education,” the report said
CAG stated that rhe department stated (July 2021) that the drop out data would be collected annually and they would ensure that the target for zero dropout would be achieved.
“Audit observed from records of the office of Deputy Directors of North and Central Zones that 281 Government aided and 103 private unaided elementary schools established before the commencement of the RTE Act did not furnish the Form-I,” report states
CAG said that the competent authorities did not initiate any action to withdraw recognition of such schools after the lapse of three years of stipulated time as provided under Rule 10(4) of GRTE Rules 2012.
