Muslims in TS fare better in school enrollment; no data on dropout rate

Hyderabad: The enrollment percentage of students from the Muslim community in Telangana is second to that of Kerala among south Indian states. Telangana has also fared better on the same parameter as compared to other Muslim populous states as well.

According to Unified District Information System on Education Plus (UDISE +) 2019-2020, the percentage of enrollment of the Muslim community in Telangana was 15.34%. This is about 3% higher than the population of the community in the state. According to the 2011 Census, the Muslim population was 12.68%, meaning 44.64 lakh.

After Kerala, which recorded a Muslim student enrollment percentage of 34.14%, Telangana comes in second.

This is followed by Karnataka with an enrollment percentage of 14.67% as against a Muslim population percentage of approximately 12.90%, Andhra Pradesh with 7.97% as against a Muslim population percentage of 9.50%, and Tamil Nadu with 6.82% as against a population of 5.86%.

Uttar Pradesh, one of the states with the highest number of Muslims in the country, has a Muslim population of approximately 19%. But, it has not done well in terms of enrollment of students from the community. Here the percentage of enrollment of Muslims students in schools is not in proportion with its population and is 15.31%.

The case is similar with Bihar where the percentage of enrollment of Muslims is not in proportion with the percentage of their population in that State.

But on a negative note, the common thread among these states is that the percentage of enrollment of students declines progressively from primary levels of education all the way to higher secondry.

Strangely, unlike previous reports, the UDISE + 2019-2020 report does not have any data on the dropout rate of the Muslim community. For instance, the District Information System on Education report for the year 2014-2015 detailed this particular aspect.

Those in the know said that among the many reasons for dropping out is the pressing need to augment the household income, especially among weaker sections of society, especially the Muslims.

A National University of Educational Planning and Administration report released in 2015 showed that dropout rate in the Muslim community was much higher than the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It had stated that in the secondary level of education, the dropout rate among Muslims was nearly twice that of these communities.