Telangana comes next to Kerala in Muslim student enrollment statistics
Among south Indian states, next to Kerala in Muslim student enrollment percentage is Telangana. Following Telangana are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
According to Unified District Information System on Education Plus 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 with 15.43%
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, with a population of 19% approx. However, in terms of enrollment of students, the percentage of enrollment of Muslim students in schools which is 15.31% is not in proportion with its population.
Similar is the case with Bihar. Here too the percentage of enrollment of Muslims is not in proportion with the percentage of their population in that State.
When assessing dropout rates, the Muslim community stands alarming, as the percentage of enrollment of students declines progressively from primary education to higher secondary.
However, unlike previous reports on enrollment, the UDISE 2019-2020 report does not have any data on the dropout rate in the Muslim community.
Explaining the increased dropout rate, experts point it out to poverty and students joining the labour force to increase household income.
According to a 2015 report released by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, the 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.