In a telling rebuttal to the State Government’s education implementation, the annual report 2008-09 of Ministry of Human Resource Development listed Sikkim in the second position in the national ranking of dropouts. As per figures outlined by the HRD Ministry in its annual report, Sikkim recorded 85 per cent school dropouts rate from Class I to X for the year 2006-07. This percentage is much higher than the national average of 59.9 per cent.
Bihar stands on top of the heap with 85.1 per cent – only 0.1 per cent separates the leader and second best in the infamy list of dropouts. According to the HRD Ministry report, a total of 85.2 per cent dropout rate has been recorded for girls between Class I to X of Sikkim while it is 84.8 per cent dropout for boys taking the total dropout rate to 85 percentage for the year 2006-07. This means that 85 per cent of the school going students of Sikkim dropped out without reaching the senior secondary levels and only 15 per cent managed to reach the senior secondary schools and much less, saw college education.
Sikkim does reasonably good in the primary education levels with the dropout rate from Class I to IV standing at 24.3 percentage, marginally below the national average of 25.4 percentage for the year 2006-07. However, the picture disintegrates in the upper primary school levels (Class I-VIII) with dropout rates of Sikkim skyrocketing to 65.5 per cent, much higher than the national average of 46 per cent.
Though the HRD Ministry, in its report, has not published the factors for the abnormally high dropout rates in Sikkim, local stakeholders here pointed that lack of quality education, economic compulsions and social issues are the responsible factors.
The quality education factor is interesting as Sikkim boasts one of the highest teacher-student ratios in the nation.