According to a recent poll conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in India, to mark the occasion of International Women’s Day 2022, there has been an alarming increase in the school dropout rates of girls across the nation. The poll showed that 38 per cent of the respondents know of at least one female student who has dropped out of school. This, despite the fact that the number of COVID-19 cases in India has declined and most schools have resumed offline functioning.
However, UNICEF’s data suggests that there have been multiple closures and re-openings during the two year period of 2020-2022, because of which there have been massive disruptions to education, and many children have fallen through the gaps. Reports suggest that around 24.7 crore schoolchildren were affected due to school closures in India, and the digital divide also emerged as a major hindrance to the seamless delivery of educational services and remote learning.
A 2020-2021 report by the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) showed that the annual dropout rate of secondary school students was 14.6 per cent.
Yasumasa Kimura, UNICEF India Representative, fears that there is a risk of a “lost generation of children” who will never return to school and that the impact on female students is disproportionately worse. “This is indeed a matter of grave concern. It is critical that we work towards transitioning all children back into learning. UNICEF is supporting the Government of India in back-to-school campaigns, awareness and outreach initiatives and learning recovery programmes at schools and in the communities. We must not only bring children back to school but also focus on putting strong remedial learning initiatives in place to ensure retention and continuity of learning,” added Kimura.