Despite the Maharashtra government’s ongoing ‘Mission Zero Drop Out’ drive, teachers’ groups claim that as many as 9.75 lakh students remain unaccounted for on the Department of Education’s official student portal. This finding contradicts the department’s annual out-of-school children (OoSC) campaign, which typically reports only a negligible number of dropouts.

According to data from the education department’s student portal, nearly 9,75,000 names are listed under the so-called ‘drop box’—a system meant to identify students who have been absent for more than three consecutive months. Thane and Pune districts reportedly top the OoSC chart.