Bhubaneswar: Altogether 8,168 students have dropped out of schools across Odisha after the institutions were closed as a preventive measure to stop the spread of Covid-19 in March 2020, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash informed the Assembly, Wednesday.
He was replying to a question posed by Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati who sought to know the exact figure of the school dropouts since the Covid-19 induced lockdown.
Nuapada district reported the highest number (896) of school dropouts, Dash said in his reply. Similarly, 681 students dropped out in Keonjhar district and 603 in Khurda.
While Sonepur, Jharsuguda and Dhenkanal districts recorded 44, 46 and 48 dropouts respectively, Boudh managed to restrict the number to 21, the lowest in Odisha.
Dash furnished the data as per the Extended MIS 2019-2020 report.
As a measure to include the dropouts in the mainstream, the department has already directed the district education officers (DEOs) and the PD DRDAs to implement different schemes under the ‘Samagra Sikshya Abhiyan’, informed Dash.
On being asked whether the students are reluctant to return to schools amidst Covid-19 scare, the minister said that no information to establish the assumption has been obtained by the department so far.
In reply to a different question Dash said that over 71 per cent students studying from Classes I to X have failed to avail of online classes as they did not have smartphones.
In a written reply to a question of MLA Kusumu Tete, the minister said the Odisha government had conducted a survey on availability of smartphones among the students in September 2020 under ‘Sikshya Sanjog Programme’.
As per the survey, only 28.87 per cent of the total students studying in Classes I to X in Odisha have been able to attend online classes since the Covid-19 pandemic as they have smartphones, Dash informed.
The worst sufferers were kids in Kandhamal district where only 13.38 per cent have smartphones, the lowest in Odisha.
The other districts with low rate of access to smartphones for students are Rayagada (14.34%), Deogarh (4.87%), Gajapati (15.34%), Malkangiri (16.22%), Koraput (17.87%), Nabarangpur (18.03%) and Boudh (18.61%).
Khurda district, which includes state capital Bhubaneswar, recorded the highest percentage (45.80%) of students having access to smartphones.
However, it also meant that close to 55 per cent of students in the state capital were not able to attend online classes during the pandemic.
Among other districts, 43.18 per cent students in Jharsuguda, 42.27 per cent in Kendrapara, 41.22 per cent in Bargarh, 38.95 per cent Jagatsinghpur, 37.60 per cent in Cuttack, 35.83 per cent in Puri and 33.24 per cent in Nayagarh have smartphones.
PNN