Issues of School drop-out in Manipur highlighted at NE Regional Consultation, Guwahati

Imphal, 27th March, 2019

Sumatibala delivering her speech on School Drop-Out issue in NE Regional Consultation, Guwahati on March 25th 2019

During the inaugural session of the NE Regional Consultation programme dated 25th March, 2019 and sponsored by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) at Guwahati, Sumatibala Ningthoujam, Chairperson of MCPCR has highlighted the critical issues of school drop-out in Manipur. She said that as per the recent report given by NITI Aayog the drop-out rate at upper primary level is comparatively higher in North-Eastern States.

Addressing the issue of quality education, NITI Aayog has recommended spending at least 6% of GDP on Education as a whole. In the report the Advisory Body has also highlighted that India’s spending 3% of GDP on education is lesser then the world’s average 4.7% of GDP.

In Manipur there is an ever increasing preference for private schools over govt. schools. This is perhaps due to the general perception that Private Schools deliver better quality education then govt. schools. Also it needs to be emphasized that in spite of govt’s efforts to improve the quality of education, it utterly fails due to the inadequate public funding in education sector.

Also as per the provisions of RTE Act, 2009 students are promoted to their respective next higher classes generating a good reason for drop-outs latter. In context of Manipur there are many other factors contributing to drop-outs for school children.

To mention a few reasons:
1) Double admissions simultaneously both in govt. & private schools for taking the benefits given in govt. schools under the provisions of RTE Act, 2009,

2) Engaging children of below poverty line families in their household works,

3) Non-availability of upper primary schooling facilities to his/her localities,

4) Poor children are usually compelled to go for petty jobs instead of going to schools etc.

School drop-out is a staggering reality in Manipur and so required to be addressed for which
a) Stakeholders should have to be made accountable to drop-outs.
b) Awareness programmes on importance of education should reach each & every community of the Multi-Ethnic society of Manipur and
c) Actionable SDIMS (Student Database Information Management System) software should be effectively implemented.

(Sumatibala Ningthoujam)
Chairperson
MCPCR