By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Falling enrolment of students in schools of India for the second year in a row in 2023-24 is a matter of serious concern. The year preceding the shutdown of schools across the country due to outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2020, enrolment of students had crossed 26.45 crore. However, in 2023-24 only 24.8 crore students could be enrolled, which is a fall of 6.23 per cent. Even in 2022-23, there were 25.18 crore enrolments. The Question is where are the children missing from the education system at a time when right to education is their fundamental right in the country?
The data revealed by the Union Ministry of Education’s Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) (NEP) 2023-24 report has made us to think on this question which needs an urgent answer, since India has been implementing the National Education Policy 2020 across the country purportedly to provide quality education to all children under the fundamental right to education, and both the Centre and the State governments are accountable for the missing students from the education system.
In 2019-20 the enrolment of students had increased by 1.6 per cent to 26.45 crore from 26.02 crore in 2018-19. Then there was an outbreak of COVID-19 followed by complete shutdown of schools in 2020-21 across the country which caused a slight fall in enrolment. Which increased by about 0.76 per cent next year in 2021-22 when schools reopened after the COVID-19 crisis was over.
It is a mystery then why did enrolment of students fall next year in 2022-23, and then further fall is registered in 2023-24? It will be surprising to know that even in 2012-13, the total enrolment was 26.3 crore. Why 12 years after in 2023-24 the total enrolment in school should fall to 24.8 crore. It should also be noted that every year 25-26 million children are born in the country. In 12 years, the increase of children should have been 300-312 million. It means 52-64 million children are missing from the education system of India in 2023-24. Where the children have gone, what is the death rate of the children, and if they are alive what prevents them in enrolment in the education system? Why there is drop in enrolment for the last two years, while enrolment increased after the COVID-19 crisis year in 2021-22?
NEP 2020 identifies enrolment and attendance of children of school going age as primary goals of the schooling system. NEP also recommends achieving universal participation in school by carefully tracking of students, as well as their learning levels, in order to ensure that they (a) are enrolled in and attending school, and (b) have suitable opportunities to catch up and re-enter school in case they have left behind or dropped out. At the heart of the NEP vision was to achieve 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) till secondary level by 2030.
For the first time at the national level, individual student wise data has been collected from all recognized schools in the country through UDISE+ since 2022-23.It may be noted that the pre-primary data contained in the UDISE+ system does not include the pre-primary enrolment of the Early Childhood Care and Education(ECCE) system run by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare through the Anganwadi Centres and standalone pre-primary education centres run by different kindergartens. It covers only the enrolment in pre-primary classes of different categories of schools.
Out of the total enrolment, 44 per cent students were in the primary, 25 per cent in the upper primary, 15 per cent in secondary, and 11 per cent in higher secondary level. However, 5 per cent were enrolled in the pre-primary level. NEP 2020 envisaged universal education to all children, but this data shows that enrolment in the pre-primary level school education need special attention since large number of them are in ECCE system. For the quality and universal education, we still need to align both the systems.
Education is the single effective tool for achieving social justice and equality. Inclusive and equitable education, an essential goal in its own right is also critical to achieving an inclusive and equitable society in which every citizen has the opportunity to dream, thrive, and contribute to the nation.
Enrolments as per social categories show that the number of general students enrolled were 27 per cent, SCs 18 per cent, STs 10 per cent, and OBCs 45 per cent. It should be noted that population of General category people in India are 31 per cent, SCs 25 per cent, STs 9 per cent and OBCs 35 per cent. The population and children enrolment is indicative of some anomaly which also needs explanation and subsequent actions if there is some gap.
The report also shows other anomalies, such as in availability of schools, teachers and students enrolled. States such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, percentage of school available are more than percentage students enrolled implying underutilization of available schools leading to suboptimal economy to scale. Where as in States viz., Telangana, Punjab, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Bihar, percentage of available schools are significantly less as compared to enrolled students indicating more students per school.
Availability of the right mix of schools at all levels being a supply variable in education system largely influences the demand factor. Though a large number of primary schools have been established post Right to Education (RTE), the commensurate increase in schools at secondary and higher secondary level have not come up. This poses the risk of large-scale dropout of students at the higher classes. West Bengal has 79 % primary schools with 47% students and only 3.5%secondary schools whereas in Chandigarh, 45 % schools are Higher Secondary schools and only 6.1 %primary schools.
At the national level, 48.1 % students are girls. The Gender Parity Index(GPI) measured as ratio of GER of girls to GER of boys stood at above 1 at all level indicating more proportionally higher participation of girls as compared to boys. Further, the representation of minorities in total enrolment is around 20%.Amongst the minorities 79.6 % are Muslim, 10% are Christians, 6.9% are Sikh, 2.2 % are Buddhist, 1.3% are Jains and 0.1% Parsi.
NEP recommended for reaching a Pupil-to-Teacher Ratio (PTR) ratio of 30:1 at all levels of school education system to have a reasonable level of interactive learning and achieving desired level of learning outcomes. PTR is still at higher level than the norm in few states especially as Higher secondary level. Chandigarh and Delhi has highest number of students per school with PTR within the RTE norm indicating optimum utilization of school infrastructure. On the other side, for states such as Assam, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Odisha, students per school are significantly low indicating need for optimization of school’s infrastructure.
Dropout rate in primary level is 1.9 per cent, in upper primary 5.2 per cent, and in secondary 14.1 per cent. The retention rates of students were 78 per cent in elementary, 63.8 per cent in secondary, and 45.6 per cent in higher education. Such a situation prevails in 2023-24 in spite of NEP 2020 has set a goal of curtaining dropouts and ensuring universal access to education at all levels by 2030. (IPA Service)
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