New Delhi: While 85,412 students dropped out from municipal and state government schools in the year 2016-17, only a single issue was raised on these drop-outs in the House meetings of the civic bodies. Moreover, in Delhi Assembly, 43 per cent MLAs did not raise a single issue on education during the last academic year.
The findings are a part of an annual report on the state of the public school education in Delhi by Praja Foundation. The information was sought by the foundation through an RTI.
Out of the total 272 councillors in all the three municipal corporations of Delhi (MCDs), more than half (147) did not raise a single issue on education in the last academic year.
The MCD schools run only primary classes (till Class 5). However, only five issues were raised on primary education by the councillors of the civic bodies in 2016-17.
In the Delhi Assembly, 25 MLAs out of 58 did not raise a single issue on education. The maximum number of issues (12) on education was raised by BJP MLA Jagdish Pradhan, the report said.
The Praja Foundation officials said that it is disappointing that while the state of public education in Delhi does not look good, the MLAs and councillors are not deliberating seriously enough upon the issues and the need to improve the school education in the national capital.
According to the report released on Thursday, the total enrolment fell down by 1,76,743 students (7 per cent fall) from 2013-14 to 2016-17.
Also, in a worrying trend, 43 per cent students in Class 9 in Delhi government schools did not go to Class 10 and 26 per cent of those in Class 11 did not go to Class 12 in the academic year 2016-17. Overall, of the 2,19,377 students who were enrolled in Class 9 in Delhi government schools in the 2013-14 batch, around 96,525 (or 44 per cent) did not reach Class 12 in 2016-17.
