Muslim Educational Dropout Is Higher Than the National Average
By
Syed Ali Mujtaba, New Age Islam
1 May 2023
A Yearbook
on the status of Muslim dropouts in educational institutions has recently been
released in Delhi. It throws some startling revelations about Muslim dropouts,
saying the rate of admission is decreasing among Muslims at the same time rate
of dropouts is increasing among them.
The book
entitled Status of Muslim Dropouts in Comparative Perspective says though the
motivation for education among Muslims has improved significantly, the dropout
rate is very high among them.
Muslim
dropout rates stand at 23.1 percent in comparison to the national school
dropout average rate of 18.96 percent.
The book
raises the question, of why the dropout rate in the country has not decreased
even after more than 10 years of the promulgation of the Right to Education.
The book
highlights many core issues of the Muslim community based on the factual data
gathered from government sources, including the Ministry of Education. It
concludes that Muslims are at the bottom of the socio-economic indexes.
The book
analyses the income-expenditure ratio to assess the educational investment by
every Muslim family at a certain income level. One of the significant
revelations made in the book is the comparison to Rupees 2600, the average cost
of elementary education per student, Muslim spend less than Rupees 500 per
student.
The book
carefully examines the causes of Muslim dropouts, and their underrepresentation
in higher education and jobs to conclude that the weaker Muslim community lacks
access to education opportunities due to their socio-economic situation.
“Although
poverty plays an important factor in the Muslim dropout rates, there are also
many other factors at play,” says Ms Rubina Tabassum, the developmental
professional who has prepared the book.
“High rate
of school dropouts among Muslim students in India should be a major source of
worry because it contributes to the socio-economic backwardness of the
country,” she says.
The book
redefines the idea of educational dropouts in the country. It is published by
the Institute of objective studies (IOS). The special edition Yearbook is the
second in a series—published by Genuine Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd., New
Delhi. The First Yearbook came in 2021.
These
Yearbooks are data books documenting core issues of the Muslim community. It is an excellent database that highlights
the household-level of statistics of the Muslim community of India. It is
important to work for those doing future research on this subject.
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Syed Ali
Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai.
URL: https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/muslim-educational-national-average/d/129675
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