India, Aug. 23 -- Declining gross enrolment ratio at the primary and secondary stages has proven to be an indomitable challenge for India's education system. Close to 10 per cent of the enrolled children do not complete their elementary education. Of those who do, nearly 30 per cent drop out after Class VI and of the remaining 44 per cent drop out before Class VIII. This means that more than three crore children in the 6-17 years age group are excluded from the education system. A large majority of them are children from marginalised communities, including Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, religious minority groups and differently abled children. Girls are the worst affected across these categories and literacy data from several reports h...