The 2009 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) — which has been compiled by NGO, Pratham, and was released by Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal on January 15 in New Delhi — states that dropout per cent in West Bengal remained stagnant at 5.7 per cent, while most of the other states recorded a decrease in the number of school dropouts after the launch of SSA.

A year ago, Bihar and Bengal had the same percentage of school dropouts. While the situation didn’t improve in Bengal, Bihar bettered its record with the school dropout rate dropping down to 4 per cent.

Left-ruled Kerala tops the list with only 0.1 per cent dropout rate. Only three states — Andhra Pradesh (6.2 per cent), Orissa (6.3 per cent) and Rajasthan (6.6 per cent) have performed worst than Bengal.

A district-wise analysis of the state, as mentioned in the report, suggests that minority-dominated districts of Malda and Murshidabad are the worst performers.

While in Malda, the percentage of out of school children stood at 10.5 per cent —maximum in the state — in Murshidabad the figure was 8 per cent.

In North Bengal, the number of such children is low with Darjeeling recording only 0.4 per cent, Jalpaiguri 2.6 per cent and Cooch Behar 2.7 per cent. Another parameter where Bengal is lagging behind is in the attendance of children in school. The average attendance of children in West Bengal is 65.9 per cent while the national average is 74.2 per cent. The report has also pointed out that 20.6 per cent schools in Bengal have less than 50 per cent attendance, but nationally 11.4 per cent schools have less than 50 per cent children attending schools.

School Education Minister Partha De, however, said that things are “improving gradually”. “We have to figure out which areas require improvement. It may happen that we are not able to bring back those children who dropped out of their schools earlier whereas new students are not leaving the schools,” De added.