New Delhi [India], March 23 (ANI): The Central government on Thursday countered the Odisha government's claim that the report of UDISE on high drop-out rate among school students was not reliable and trustworthy.

Ministry of Education clarified that Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE) data is not only reliable but the only pan India and most trusted database in school education in the country.

"UDISE is one of the largest Management Information Systems initiated by Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education, Government of India covering more than 14.89 lakh schools, 95 lakhs teachers and 26.5 crore students" Ministry added.

Ministry further said that it is informed that the Head Teacher/Head Master of the school in all the States compiles the data and it goes through three stage validation/verification process viz., Block/Cluster level, District level and State level. This data is finally certified by State Project Director (SPD) at the State level.

"The data once certified by the SPD of the respective State is considered as approved by the State. Therefore, data is entered in the UDISE portal by the respective State itself" Ministry addedEducation Ministry said that UDISE truly represents one Nation one database in respect of School Education in the country. UDISE is an online portal facility created by DoSEL for records of data related to schools, teachers, enrolment, infrastructure etc. in respect of all recognized schools in the country.

In UDISE school wise data is captured through Data Capture Format (DCF). Each school has been provided with the login ID and password for facilitating online data compilation by respective schools, the ministry stated.

According to UDISE 2020-21, Odisha has reported a total of 21.42 lakh students in Upper Primary and 13.25 lakh students in Secondary. Similarly, in 2021-22, the same in respect of Upper Primary was 20.72 lakh and 12.46 lakh at Secondary. Therefore, there is a clear decline in enrolment across both levels in Odisha.

As per the data reported by the Government of Odisha, "In the UDISE portal, the class-wise details of enrolment in 2020-21 and 2021-22 are 2020-21, of the total 7.58 lakh students in class 8, only 6.27 lakh students transited to class 9 in 2021-22 showing a net decline of 1.32 lakh students or 17.3 per cent."In 2020-21, of the total 6.40 lakh students in class 9, only 6.19 lakh students transited to class 10 in 2021-22 showing a net decline of 0.2 lakh students or 3.1 per cent.

"In 2020-21, of the total 6.86 lakh students in class 10, only 3.43 lakh students transited to class 11 in 2021-22 showing a net decline of 3.42 lakh students or 49.9 per cent.

In 2020-21, of the total 3.66 lakh students in class 11, only 3.46 lakh students transited to class 12 in 2021-22 showing a net decline of 0.19 lakh students or 5.2 per cent." the statement reads.

Ministry of Education said that therefore, UDISE data clearly reflects that enrolment and students transiting from Class 8 to 9, Class 9 to 10, Class 10 to 11 and Class 11 to 12 have declined to indicate a large number of students are dropping out at the transition of Upper Primary to Secondary level and subsequently to Higher Secondary level.

"UDISE 2021-22 data also shows that Drop Out rate at the Upper Primary level in Odisha is 7.3 per cent and at the Secondary level it is 27.3 per cent as against the National Average of 3 per cent and 12.6 per cent respectively."Further, it is to be noted that the dropout rate for girls at the upper primary level is 6.5 per cent and at secondary level is 25 per cent as against the national average of 3.3 per cent and 12.3 per cent respectively" Ministry addedIt is also informed that as per UDISE 2021-22 report, the Drop Out rate of students in Uttar Pradesh at the upper primary level was 2.9 per cent and at the secondary level 9.7 per cent respectively. (ANI)