NITI Aayog finds 11.5% secondary school dropout rate for 2024-25
India
A new NITI Aayog report reveals that about one in every 10 students leaves school before finishing secondary education, putting the national dropout rate at 11.5% for 2024-25.
That's the highest among all schooling levels, and it means a lot of teens aren't making it to graduation.
Poverty, child labor and state disparities
The main reasons are money problems at home, kids starting work early, and not enough support from schools.
Dropout rates vary a lot by state: Chandigarh (2%), Jharkhand (3.5%), and Kerala (4.8%) have kept their numbers low, while West Bengal (20%), Arunachal Pradesh (18.3%), and Karnataka (18.3%) are still struggling.
Some states like Odisha and Bihar have made big improvements, but keeping students in school remains a challenge across much of India.