Kerala records lowest school dropout rate in India: Education Minister

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], January 18 (ANI): With Kerala recording 0.11 per cent dropout rate of school students in the year 2019-20, Education Minister C Raveendranath on Monday said the state has achieved the distinction of having the lowest dropout rate in the country.
Replying to a question in Kerala Assembly today, the Education Minister said that about 6.79 lakh new students enrolled in government schools in the state.
"Kerala was able to achieve the lowest school dropout rate of 0.11 among the states. The higher secondary school dropout rate is just 0.15 per cent while as per the Minister of Human Resource Development (MHRD) the national average is 17.06 per cent. In Kerala we were able to bring down the Upper Primary dropout rate to 0.06 per cent," Raveendranath said.
He further said that Kerala was able to achieve this milestone due to modernisation of the educational system along with making schools high-tech.
"We have focused on modernising schools in Kerala with hi-tech classrooms and hi-tech labs in all government-run and aided schools. In the MHRD's performance index, for the last two years Kerala was able to come to the top," he stated.
Speaking about education in the COVID-19 scenario the minister said reducing the syllabus was not a solution, but giving emphasis to the focus areas of the syllabus is the key, and it is necessary.
"The classes for 10th standard students finished yesterday and classes for 12th will be completed in the next two weeks. The revision will take place after it with the students being given portions, the focus area from each chapter in a subject," he added.
Talking about the new approach that the state is developing to conduct examinations, Raveendranath said, "Exams shouldn't be a scale for examining the students but for identifying the talents of each student and to groom a student accordingly. This new approach is being developed by the Education Department." (ANI)