The Union HRD Minister informed the Lok Sabha that the percentage of dropouts in IITs has gone down from 2.5 per cent in 2015-16 to 0.68 in 2019-20. Similarly, it has dropped from 1.04 in 2015-16 to 0.78 per cent in all IIMs.
HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said this in a written reply where he emphasised on decreasing dropout rates.
“Number of corrective measures have minimized the drop-outs which includes appointment of advisors to monitor the academic progress,” he added.
Most dropouts were seen from the reserved categories
In the monsoon session of the parliament in the previous year, HRD Minister had informed that out of 2,461 dropout IIT students, 371 were from SC, 199 from ST and 601 were from OBC.
On average, nearly 48% of students from IITs and 62% from IIMs belonged to the reserved category.
One of the important reasons cited for the drop out was that the reserved category students have a lower cut-off in entrance exam. But once the college begins, the passing marks are the same for all. This makes the clearance tougher for the candidates in reservation.
The HRD too cited the academic stress to be the top reason for the dropout.
