Education Ministry flags steady increase in private school enrolment in states, asks them to reverse trend

In 11 of the 23 states and Union Territories, for which meeting minutes have been made public so far, the Union ministry has raised the matter of increasing enrolments in private schools, and decreasing enrolments in government and aided schools, despite these states having a higher number of government schools.

A similar matter, on decreasing enrolments in government schools, was raised in recent meetings that the Ministry had with the states on the PM-POSHAN or midday meal scheme as well.

In Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Uttarakhand, for instance, the secretary of the Education Ministry’s Department of School Education and Literacy “expressed his concerns that in spite of spending a large amount of funds, students are moving away from government schools, which is a disturbing trend.”

The minutes of the ministry’s meeting with Andhra Pradesh refer to UDISE+ data from 2023-24 to state that out of the 61,373 schools in the state, around 73 per cent (45,000) are government schools, and around 25 per cent (15,232) are private ones. However, enrolment in government schools is around 46 per cent of the total enrolment, while enrolment in private schools is a little more than 52 per cent of the total, going by the minutes. “Enrolment trend during 2021-22 to 2023-24 suggests that enrolment in unaided schools is steadily increasing,” the minutes state.

In Telangana and Uttarakhand, the minutes say that the enrolment trend during the 2018-19 to 2023-24 period suggests that “except during 2021-22 (COVID-19)”, enrolment in unaided schools is steadily increasing.

In Telangana, it refers to UDISE+ 2023-24 data to point out that 70 per cent of the 42,901 schools in the State are government ones, but enrolment in government schools accounts for only 38.11 per cent of the total enrolment, compared to 60.75 per cent of the total enrolment being in private schools.

Similarly, in Uttarakhand, close to 72 per cent of the total number of schools in the state are government ones. “However, total enrolment in government schools is only 36.68 per cent as compared to 54.39 per cent enrolment in unaided schools,” the minutes read.

In the case of Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Telangana, the secretary has suggested that the state “should make a sincere analysis of the root cause so as to take remedial steps and to reverse this trend.”

In Tamil Nadu, the Union ministry has pointed out that government schools constitute 64 per cent of the total number of schools, and account for 37 per cent of student enrolment. In contrast, unaided schools make up 21 per cent of the total, and account for 46 per cent of enrolment. “In this regard, the State was urged to build the government school brand so as to increase enrolment and make the best use of the available resources,” the minutes stated.

In Kerala and Maharashtra, the Union ministry flagged a drop in government and aided school enrolments in 2023-24 compared to 2018-19 in Maharashtra, and compared to 2022-23 in Kerala. In response, these states have said that they have done a “data cleansing exercise using Aadhaar verification”.

In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Ladakh, Puducherry, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, the Education Ministry has noted that enrolment in private schools is higher compared to government schools, and has referred to this as a “matter of concern.”

A senior official in the Ministry of Education said that private school enrolments are particularly high in the junior classes, and that states have been asked to check for reasons for the drop in government school enrolment. The official added: “With aspirations, demand for private schools has also gone up.”

The meetings on the PM-POSHAN scheme had referred to a drop in enrolments in government and aided schools, with officials citing a data clean-up and a move to private schools in the post-COVID years as possible reasons.

The UDISE+ 2023-24 data shows that private school enrolment accounts for 36 per cent (a little over 9 crore) of the total school enrolment of 24.80 crore. In 2022-23, private school enrolment was 33 per cent of the total, the same as the figure in 2021-22, and a little less than the 36 per cent recorded in 2020-21. In the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20, private school enrolment accounted for 37 per cent of the total.

(UDISE+ data. Total enrolment includes govt aided schools)