Dropout data missing for secondary students, ministry says

The question asked the Ministry of Minority Affairs to provide enrollment and dropout percentages for minority students compared to general students across primary, upper primary, secondary, higher secondary, and higher education levels for the last five years, disaggregated by religion. The Ministry responded by providing aggregate data for the six notified minority communities and explaining data limitations regarding religious disaggregation and dropout metrics.

Asked and answered by: Asked by Shri Sachithanantham R; Answered by the Ministry of Minority Affairs (Minister Shri Kiren Rijiju).

What the government said

• UDISE+ records minority enrollment as an aggregate of six notified communities (Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Jain) and does not maintain figures disaggregated by religion.
• UDISE+ maintains dropout rates only at the aggregate level and does not capture dropout rates separately for the Secondary level.
• AISHE records higher education enrollment for 'Muslim' and 'Other Minority Communities' (Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Jain combined) but does not capture dropout or attrition data.
• The government states that there is no concept of dropout in higher education due to student mobility between courses and programs.

Also in the document

• The answer explicitly states that the requested data is not available disaggregated by religion for school education, as UDISE+ only tracks the aggregate of the six notified minority groups.
• The answer notes that dropout data is not captured for the Secondary level in UDISE+.
• The answer states that AISHE does not capture dropout or attrition data for Higher Education Institutions, citing the lack of a 'dropout' concept in that sector.