The Ministry of Education's Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) has reported a decline in school enrolment for the academic year 2023-24. According to the report, enrollment in schools across the country dropped by 37 lakh in the academic year 2023-24. This data aggregation platform collects school education data from across the country.
Drop in numbers
According to the report, the number of enrolled students in 2022-23 was 25.17 crore, the figures for 2023-24 stood at 24.80 crore. The decline was observed in the number of girls and boys. The number of female students dropped by 16 lakh while the number of boy students fell by 21 lakh. The representation of minorities in total enrollment stood at around 20 per cent. Among the minorities, 79.6 per cent were Muslims, 10 per cent Christians, 6.9 per cent Sikhs, 2.2 per cent Buddhists, 1.3 per cent Jains, and 0.1 per cent Parsis.
Voluntary submission of Aadhaar numbers
The data collection process involved a voluntary submission of Aadhaar numbers, which helped to identify 'ghost students', and aided in transferring benefits to the deserving students. However, Officials have clarified that the data observed some real changes from the previous years, as this exercise of maintaining a separate student base is different, unique and incomparable to 2021-22 or prior years.
A senior officer told news agency PTI, ''Individual student-wise data reflects a realistic and more accurate picture of the education system, which is being attempted for the first time at the national level, marking a departure from the school-wise consolidated data collected till 2021-22. Hence, the data is not strictly comparable to the previous reports on various educational indicators such as GER, NER, dropout rates, etc.''
The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) compares the enrolment in a specific level of education to the population of the age group, which is most age-appropriate for that level of education. "Curtailing dropouts and ensuring universal access to education at all levels by 2030 is one of the primary goals of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Areas such as enrolment and retention of students show how many students who entered the school at Class-1 are being retained in subsequent years, representing the effectiveness of the policy.
"With individual student-wise data, dropout of students can now be identified precisely, who can be tracked and be brought back to school. This will also help monitor the progression of students through their entire school life. It is calculated based on actual movement of students from one level to another using individual student-wise data. It represents the actual scenario more precisely," the official said.
Schools are more in THESE states than students
The report also noted that the availability of schools, teachers and students enrolled in different states are different. "In states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan, the percentage of schools available is more than the percentage of students enrolled, implying underutilisation of available schools.
Schools are less in THESE states
"Whereas in states like Telangana, Punjab, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujrat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Bihar, the percentage of available schools is significantly less as compared to enrolled students, indicating better utilisation of infrastructure," the report said.
