The number of students enrolled in schools across India has declined by 37 lakh in 2023-2024 as compared to the previous academic session, while the dip is steeper – more than 1 crore between 2022 and 2024 – when compared to the pre-pandemic levels in 2018-2019, as per a report published by the education ministry.
This report, Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), is an important tool to track enrolment in schools from pre-primary to secondary stages. States directly feed data onto this portal on different parameters of school education, including enrolment, number of teachers, and schools.
According to the UDISE+ report, 24.8 crore students enrolled in 2023-2024 while this figure stood at 25.18 crore in 2022-2023. The figures for the previous four years – 26.52 crore (2021-2022), 26.44 crore (2020-2021), 26.45 crore (2019-2020) and 26.03 crore (2018-2019) – show that the average total enrolment stood around 26.36 crore.
Data shows that when compared from the period between 2018-2019 (reference year for UDISE+ data) and 2021-2022, the decline in enrolment – for the first time since the pandemic – has been over 1 crore between 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
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Also, the number of female students dropped by 16 lakh during the period under review, while the number of male students fell by 21 lakh. The representation of minorities in total enrolment stood at around 20 per cent.
Some states have shown a larger dip in 2023-24 as compared to 2018-19. In Bihar, this is 35.65 lakh students, 28.26 lakh in Uttar Pradesh while the number is 18.55 lakh in Maharashtra.
Among social categories, the total enrolment of students from other backward classes (OBC) dropped by at least 25 lakh, while this number is 12 lakh in the scheduled castes (SC) category, as compared to the previous academic year.
In 2023-2024, the total SC students enrolled were 4.47 crore while this figure was 4.59 crore in 2022-2023. While 11.2 crore students enrolled in the OBC category in 2023-2024, the same was 11.45 crore in 2022-2023.
‘NEW STRATEGY OF DATA COLLECTION’
The report, however, said the “data for 2023-2024 observes some real changes from the previous years as this exercise of maintaining a separate student base (used this year) is totally different, unique and incomparable to 2021-2022 or prior years."
“Individual student-wise data reflects realistic and more accurate picture of education system, which is attempted for the first time at the national level, a departure from school-wise consolidated data till 2021-2022 and, hence, the UDISE+ 2022-2023 data is not strictly comparable with the previous reports on various educational indicators like the gross enrolment ratio (GER), net enrolment rate (NER) and dropout rates etc," it said.
The 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. The new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims for 100 per cent GER across different levels of school education by 2030.
With effect from 2023-2024, the school ecosystem is reclassified into the new pedagogical and curricular structure – foundational (pre-primary + primary), preparatory (partly primary), middle (upper primary), secondary (secondary + higher secondary) in line with NEP 2020 recommendation. As a result, education indicators are also reclassified in the 5+3+3+4 structure format from the previous 10+2 academic structure.
Accordingly, UDISE+ report 2023-24 is restructured, and schools, teachers, students, and other educational indicators are reported as per the NEP 2020 aligned structure, it added.
The report further highlighted that the availability of schools, teachers, and students enrolled in different states are different. “In states such as Uttar Pradesh (UP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), 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. Whereas in states like Telangana, Punjab, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Bihar, the percentage of available schools is significantly less as compared to enrolled students, indicating better utilisation of infrastructure," it said.
