1.7 lakh children are out of schools in Karnataka: SSA

Around 1.7 lakh children are out of the schools in Karnataka between the age group of 6 and 16 years, as per Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Survey.

This survey includes children who were never admitted and who were dropped out of the schools.

The survey data, which has been further tracked at the block, cluster and the district level, was noted that out of 1.7 lakh, 83,820 were girls.

Around 4062 schools were working in the state.

The educational district that has the highest number of out-of-school children is Bangalore (South) with 18,393, followed by Gulbarga (15,468) and Raichur (12,128).

The district with the lowest number of such children is Uttara Kannada with 686, followed by Udupi (1,008) and Sirsi (1,066). Five districts, Yadgir, Raichur, Gulbarga, Koppal and Bellary, have 56,898 such children.

The dropout rate of children was 2.3% as calculated against enrollment in 2012-13.

The highest dropout rate is 6.32% at Yadgir district, while lowest dropout rate is 0.66% in Dakshina Kannada.

Commissioner for Public Instruction Mohammad Mohsin said, "The figures have revealed that there are more number of dropouts compared to the department's earlier figure as the survey was more comprehensive with some parameters being changed".