Student enrolment in secondary schools rises 2%, UDISE+ report shows

The improvement comes after a dip in the last report released in January this year. The Gross Enrolment Ratio has marginally risen from 66.5% in 23-24 to 68.5% in 24-25 as per the recent report, released Thursday.

New Delhi: Enrolment of students in secondary schools has shown a marginal increase of 2 per cent, data from the education ministry’s Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2024–25 report shows. The improvement comes after a dip in the last report released in January this year. The Gross Enrolment Ratio has marginally risen from 66.5 per cent in 23-24 to 68.5 per cent in 24-25 as per the recent report, released Thursday.

The urban–rural divide has also continued to deepen. While 82 per cent of schools are in rural areas, only 66 per cent of students and 69 per cent of teachers are in rural areas.

The ministry attributed that to low fertility rates and lower enrolment in schools from the preparatory level. The ministry said that the rates are still based on the 2011 Census and are set to improve when they will be based on the upcoming Census which will start from March.

The data also showed that while 69 per cent of schools are government-run, they serve only 49 per cent of students. In contrast, 26 per cent of schools are private, but they handle 41 per cent of enrolments.

The data also showed that for the first time in any academic year, since the beginning of the UDISE data, the total number of teachers crossed the 1 crore mark in 2024–25, a rise of 6.7 per cent number of teachers during the reporting year as compared to 2022-23. “The increase in teacher numbers is a critical step toward improving student-teacher ratios, ensuring quality education, and addressing regional disparities in teacher availability,” the ministry said in a release.

The Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) at the foundational, preparatory, middle, and secondary levels is now 10, 13, 17, and 21 respectively, while the National Education Policy’s (NEP’s) recommended ratio of 1:30.

Dropout rate, too, fell across the three levels – Preparatory, Middle, and Secondary in comparison to the last two years. Dropout rates in preparatory rates fell from 3.7 per cent to 2.3 per cent, at the middle stage from 5.2 per cent to 3.5 per cent, and at the secondary stage from 10.9 per cent to 8.2 per cent. Single teacher schools fell from 110971 in 2023-24 to 104125 in 2024-25. Zero-enrolment schools fell from 12954 in 2023-24 to 7993 in 2024-25. Significantly, the increase in the number of schools with computer access rose from 57.2 per cent in 2023–24 to 64.7 per cent this year.