Indian National Congress (INC) politician and third-time MLA from Chittapur constituency, Priyank Kharge (Archive link) shared a screenshot of The Print (archive link) article on his Twitter account. The article is titled, “25,000+ SC/ST/OBC students left IITs and Central Universities in last 5 years, shows data from Parliament.”
Sharing the screenshot of the article, Priyank wrote, “This raises serious questions about the BJP government’s commitment to inclusive education and social upliftment. It’s time the Govt steps in with necessary interventions to support for marginalized students.”
He is trying to portray that SC/ST students are opting to drop out from IITs and central universities because the BJP government has not been able to provide them a safe environment. And they are facing discrimination because of being from a marginalized community. They are not treated in an inclusive manner in prestigious colleges and institutes.
In our fact-checking research, we discovered that Priyank had selectively shared the screenshot of The Print’s article and omitted the other prominent parts from the article to further his agenda. The complete article provides a different explanation for the dropout than what he is trying to portray.
The Print article says, according to the statistics provided by the Minister of State for Education, Subhas Sarkar, the reasons for leaving a course differ depending on the programme.
A total of 25,593 students from restricted categories—including SC, ST, OBC, and other minority groups—have left central institutions and IITs over the previous five years.
In particular, 8,139 IIT students and 17,545 reserved category students from central institutions discontinued their studies between 2019 and 2023. Although specific numbers were not given, postgraduate and PhD programmes saw the majority of dropouts. In answer to a query from Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar, Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar provided this information.
Reserved category students leave IITs for a variety of causes, which the have recognized institutions and addressed. Receiving employment offers in the public sector and a personal desire for better chances elsewhere were the top reasons given for dropping out of postgraduate and PhD programmes.
Conversely, undergraduate students discontinued their studies for reasons such as making wrong admissions decisions, performing poorly in academics, and having personal or health problems.
Corrective measures have been put in place to reduce dropout rates, including the appointment of advisors to monitor academic progress, offering extra classes to students who are academically weaker, peer-assisted learning, stress-reduction counselling, psychological motivation, and encouraging extracurricular activities.
The Print spoke to the Prof Dheeraj Sanghi of IIT-Kanpur who shed light on the reasons why majority of students are dropping out from their programmes.
Prof Dheeraj draws our attention to the many variables that contributed to the trend caused the dropout rate for students from the restricted category to fluctuate in the IITs. He stated that the reasons given for the undergraduate-level dropouts were family troubles, difficulties adjusting to the high-pressure atmosphere, and a lack of peer support. Additionally, because of the delay in government job recruiting results, students from the reserved category abandoned their master’s programmes in favour of safer employment opportunities.
He further added that IITs are trying to gather feedback from all institutions to develop strategies that address the issues that cause dropouts and better support students throughout their academic careers in order to address this issue.
The Print contacted the professors at key Universities to gain insight into the causes of students leaving these institutions.
They said that the financial difficulties faced by reserved category students are the cause of their high dropout rates. The stress of supporting the family financially was another important aspect. Additionally, women students tended to drop out in greater numbers than men. They get constantly pressurized from families to get married. Families put persistent pressure on them to get married.
In some cases, media outlets may write misleading headlines to promote or propagate propaganda. That’s what The Print has doing it for years. Misleading headlines can manipulate how readers perceive a news story before they even read the full article. By presenting information in a skewed or one-sided manner, media outlets can influence public opinion in favor of a specific viewpoint.
The Print’s headline “25,000+ SC/ST/OBC students left IITs & central universities in last 5 yrs, shows Parliament data” gives the impression to its readers that the BJP government is not providing safe grounds for the students and that they are subject to discrimination because of their marginalized status, which is why such students are choosing to drop out.
| Claim | Marginalized students are opting to drop out of IITs and central universities due to discrimination |
| Claimed by | Priyank Kharge |
| Fact Check | Misleading |
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