Education Ministry Warns: Dropouts & Learning Gaps Threaten India’s ‘Viksit Bharat’ Dream

Education Ministry Warns: Dropouts & Learning Gaps Threaten India’s ‘Viksit Bharat’ Dream

Last Updated Sep - 15 - 2025, 11:04 AM | Source : Fela news | Visitors : 21

Learning gaps, high dropouts, outdated education system pose severe challenge to India’s future workforce vision.

India is at a critical juncture. As the government gears up for the Fifth National Conference of Chief Secretaries, the education ministry has raised the alarm bells: growing learning gaps, high dropout rates, and a disconnect between education and industry needs are threatening the “Viksit Bharat” vision. 
The problem is multi-layered. While students are expected to study over 13 years on average, in reality they’re getting much less only about 7.33 mean years of schooling. Also, secondary education enrolment is low: a gross enrolment ratio of 66.5%, and even lower net enrolment for some age-appropriate students. Many students are in grades that don’t match their age, which makes class dynamics uneven and teaching harder. 
Dropouts are another major worry. Out of nearly two crore school children, more than 1.42 crore dropped out, and some never even enrolled. Foundation and secondary levels are especially vulnerable. Swelling classrooms with age mismatches, understaffed schools, empty teacher positions, and low adoption of skill education further intensify the problem. 
Then there’s the future-readiness challenge. Technology and AI are racing ahead, but many higher education institutions and curricula are not keeping up. Private schools are lagging in reforms. Industry-academia collaboration is weak, labs and technology transfer are underfunded, and many students graduate without skills matching employer demand.
To address these, the ministry is pushing for stronger secondary education systems, better skills-based education, higher investment (targeting 6% of GDP), and reforms that bring educational content closer to industry needs. The upcoming NCCS meeting under the Prime Minister is expected to focus on how to build a workforce that’s ready for emerging challenges, so that India’s youthful population becomes its greatest strength not its biggest risk.

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