Why Government Schools Saw Low Enrolment Post Pandemic, UDISE+ Report Explained – News18

Last Updated:January 03, 2025, 14:12 IST

Bihar and UP saw the biggest decline in school enrolments, as per UDISE+ government report. The main reason is that the economy has recovered and the working class, which had gone to their native states during the pandemic, has migrated back to cities for work

School enrolment has seen a significant drop for the academic session 2023-2024, especially post Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report that was released by the government.

Government schools across the country were at the receiving end compared with their private counterparts, which have still seen an uptick in admissions.

What’s the reason behind low enrolments and where does the data come from? Let’s understand the issue.

What Is UDISE+?

UDISE+ is a platform where states directly feed data on different parameters of school education, including enrolment, number of teachers and schools, social categories, infrastructure and the different levels of education.

It is a crucial tool to track enrolment in schools from pre-primary to secondary stages. The data collection and publishing of reports started in the year 2018-19 by the Union Ministry of Education (MoE). The data covers all types of schools including government, government-aided, private and private-unaided.

What Does The Data Indicate?

According to the 2023-24 report, overall 24.8 crore students enrolled in schools, which was a drop of 37 lakh students from the 2022-23 academic session when the total number of students enrolled was 25.18 crore.

This is a six-year low as all the previous years since 2018-19, the average total enrolment stood at 26.36 crore.

The enrolment in government schools has seen a significant decrease of 88 lakh students — 12.74 crore in 2023-24 and 13.62 crore in 2022-23.

On the contrary, private school enrolments saw an increase in 2023-24, with over 9 crore students as compared to 8.4 crore in 2022-23, indicating a shift after the pandemic. This means students who joined government schools under financial constraints during the pandemic were enrolling to private institutions.

Which States Have Seen A Drop In Govt School Admissions?

While overall enrolment has remained low this year across states, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka saw a steep decline in 2023-24. Bihar and UP, from where most migration take place, saw the biggest enrolment decline of 28.92 lakh and 21.49 lakh, respectively.

Other states lagging in school enrolments were Rajasthan (8.68 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (4.24 lakh), Karnataka (3.15 lakh), Telangana (2.29 lakh), Haryana (2.30 lakh).

“The decline in enrolment in government schools is only indicative of the fact that the economy has recovered and the working class that had gone back to their native states have migrated back to cities for work,” said an official in the UP education department, who didn’t wish to be named.

The report also stated from the year 2022-23, a new methodology of data collection was used, which does not allow “duplication” or “ghost-entries” of both students and teachers.

“For the first time, student-wise data from academic year 2022-23 has been collected from all recognised schools in the country through UDISE+. This makes the data incomparable to previous years,” the report stated.

Why It Matters?

The new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims for 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 2030.

GER refers to enrolment in a specific level of education regardless of age expressed as a percentage of the eligible official school-age population. This is done to ensure that no child is left out of the education system due to any circumstance.

One of the primary goals of the school system must be to ensure that all children are enrolled and are attending classes.

NEP recommends achieving universal participation in school by tracking of students and their learning levels in order to ensure that they are enrolled in, and are attending school; and have suitable opportunities to catch up in case they were left behind or dropped out.

What Are The Disparities Seen Among States?

In states such as UP, MP, Assam, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Rajasthan, the percentage of schools available is more than the percentage of student enrolment, implying “underutilisation” of resources leading to suboptimal economy to scale, the data showed.

While in states like Telangana, Punjab, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Bihar, the percentage of available schools is significantly less than the percentage of students enrolled, indicating more students per school, the report said.

Availability of right mix of schools at all levels being a supply variable in education system largely influences the demand factor.

The report also highlighted that though a large number of primary schools were established post Right To Education, the increase did not happen at secondary and higher secondary levels, leading to large-scale dropouts.

Though the Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) is still at a higher level than prescribed in the RTE in few states, especially at the secondary level. “It is observed that Chandigarh and Delhi have the highest number of students per school with PTR within the RTE norm indicating optimum utilisation of school infrastructure. On the other hand, in states such as Assam, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Odisha, students per school are significantly low indicating the need for optimisation of school’s infrastructure,” the report added.