Dropouts impede efforts to boost literacy in NE 

DESPITE having high literacy figures, the North-Eastern states are increasingly finding it difficult to achieve the desired goal of 100 per cent literacy due to high dropout rates at the primary level. Mizoram has the second highest (89.9 per cent) literacy rate among the 35 states and Union territories in India while Tripura ranks 12th (73.66 per cent) at the national level. While Manipur (68.87 per cent) and Sikkim (69.68 per cent) are above the national average, Assam and Meghalaya rank below the national average. Arunachal Pradesh is well below the national average (54.74 per cent) and has one of the lowest female literacy rates in the country. Assam, Meghalaya and Sikkim have been registering an alarming high drop out rates followed by Bihar and West Bengal. Meghalaya has a drop out rate of 78 per cent followed by Sikkim (70.33) and Assam (between 70 to 80 per cent). Bihar has the highest dropout rates among girls (81 per cent). What further aggravates the situation is the lower participation of boys in elementary education in Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. According to the ninth Finance Commission, of the total number of students enrolled at the primary level across the country only 8 per cent reach the matriculation level. Since independence the current decade has witnessed the highest literacy growth.

However, 32 million children are yet to enjoy the benefits of education. Nearly 13 per cent of the villages in the country lack primary schools. A study revealed that only 48 per cent of boys and girls could continue their elementary education up till class VIII.

In the North-Eastern states, the language of instruction in the schools has also contributed to the high drop out rates. Due to several languages and dialects spoken in the region, the students find it difficult to adjust with the medium of instruction in the schools resulting in high dropout rates. High dropout rates will only ensure more backwardness and more unrest in the region. Time has now come for the State Governments of the region to take immediate steps to stop this trend to save the North-East from more violence.

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