What is India's school dropout rate in 2024-25?

Preparatory-stage dropout is 2.3%, Middle-stage is 3.5%, and Secondary-stage (Classes 9-12 combined) is 8.2%. All three fell from the year before.

What's the difference between dropout rate, transition rate, and retention rate?

Dropout rate measures students who leave without finishing a level. Transition rate measures students moving from one stage to the next. Retention rate measures how many students from an original group finish an entire stage, from start to end.

Which states have the highest secondary school dropout rates?

West Bengal (20.0%), Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka (18.3% each), and Assam (17.5%) have dropout rates at or above 15%.

Which states have the lowest secondary school dropout rates?

Chandigarh (2.0%), Kerala (4.8%), Himachal Pradesh (6.2%), and Punjab (6.2%) are among the most credible low-dropout states. Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh also report low secondary dropout, but both carry a separate data-quality flag at the primary level, so their secondary numbers are worth reading with that in mind.

Why does the dropout rate look better than the retention rate?

Because the dropout rate and retention rate measure different things. Retention through Class 12 is 47.2%, even though the transition rate into secondary school is a strong 86.6%. Students are getting in. The bigger loss happens after Class 10, inside secondary school, not at its entrance.

Do dropout rates differ by gender in India?

Yes, though not in the same direction at every stage. Girls have a lower dropout rate than boys at the primary and secondary levels. At upper primary, that flips: boys (4.1%) run higher than girls (2.9%). The primary-level gender numbers carry the same data-reliability caveat as the states reporting 0% dropout, since girls' primary dropout rate is itself reported at 0.0%.