The government, quoting a UNESCO report, today said that 13.5 million children in the country in the age group of 6-13 years were out of school in 2005 with Muslims being the most affected section of the society.
“The Report (UNESCO) says that the number of out of school children has halved from 25 million in 2002 to 13.5 million in 2005,” Minister of state for Human Resource Development D Purandeshwari said in a written reply.
She said the report also notes that the variations by social group were much larger than those by gender or place of residence, the out-of-school rates were 10 per cent for Muslims, 9.5 per cent STs, 8.2 per cent SCs, 6.9 per cent for OBCs and 3.7 per cent for the remaining social groups.
Purandeshwari said that the government was adopting a multi-pronged strategy for reducing dropout rates among all sections of the society.
Replying to another question, the Minister quoting National Science Survey Report-2004, said there is no decline in interest in proportion of students who wish to study science.
Further, she said as per India Science Report, the annual enrolment at graduate plus level in Science subject has risen from 28.8 per cent in 1995-96 to 34.6 per cent in 2004.
Purandeshwari also informed the Upper House that government has no information that students from well off families posing as NRIs are getting admission by paying huge amounts to engineering and Management Institutions.
To ensure transparency in admission, she said All India Council for Technical Education stipulates that it shall be incumbent upon the institution concerned to ensure the bonafides of the student, their background and track records, ensuring the country’s intrests and security concerns.