<p>Bengaluru: Schools affiliated to state-prescribed syllabus, including those run by government, private and aided ones, have witnessed a drastic dip in admissions for classes 1 to 10 in the 2025-26 academic year.</p>.<p>The number of students admitted this year is around 5 lakh lower than last year.</p>.<p>State-run schools have witnessed the highest decline of 2.54 lakh, followed by 1.7 lakh at private ones and 77,000 at private (aided) schools.</p>.<p>According to sources, admissions witnessed a major variation at class 1 level.</p>.<p>“This is mainly because of the non-availability of children below 6 years of age due to a decline in birth rate,” said an official from the department of school education and literacy.</p>.<p>But experts are of the opinion that the children are migrating from state schools to CBSE and ICSE boards.</p>.<p>“Reduction in children’s population is a general thing. But here, the reason for the decline in numbers is migration to other boards. When it comes to state board, a majority are government-run schools and students withdrawing admissions from government schools matters a lot,” said V P Niranjanaradhya, development educationist.</p>.RGUHS puts plan to introduce AI in evaluation on hold over accuracy concerns.<p>He said parents were losing hopes on government schools. “The government thinks it can attract admissions by giving freebies like shoes, uniforms and mid-day meals alone. But in reality parents look at quality education. The process of education at CBSE and ICSE is a continuous one. Other board schools have regular teachers and those teachers will not be sent on survey works, like in the case of government school teachers, which distracts academic activity for more than three months in a year. While enrolling children, parents consider all these factors,” he said. </p>.<p>As per the academic calendar of the department, admissions for the current year officially got over on July 31, with 99,47,261 students enrolling as against 1.4 crore in 2024-25 and 1.5 crore in 2023-24. However, government schools allow admissions throughout the year. </p>.<p>The recently released UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education) report for 2024-25 of the union government highlighted the drop in admissions from pre-primary to class 12 at state board schools. </p>.<p>As stated in the report, the enrolment of children in 2024-25 was 1,17,80,251 against 1,19,26,303 in 2023-24. </p>.<p><strong>Official’s take</strong></p>.<p>“It is the result of a combination of factors like less population (declining birth rate), migration to other boards, etc... To address such issues, we are focusing more on learning-based assessment to improve quality at our schools. With Karnataka Public Schools and two-language policy, we are hoping to attract more enrolments in coming years,” Dr Trilok Chandra K V, commissioner of department of school education, told DH. </p>
<p>Bengaluru: Schools affiliated to state-prescribed syllabus, including those run by government, private and aided ones, have witnessed a drastic dip in admissions for classes 1 to 10 in the 2025-26 academic year.</p>.<p>The number of students admitted this year is around 5 lakh lower than last year.</p>.<p>State-run schools have witnessed the highest decline of 2.54 lakh, followed by 1.7 lakh at private ones and 77,000 at private (aided) schools.</p>.<p>According to sources, admissions witnessed a major variation at class 1 level.</p>.<p>“This is mainly because of the non-availability of children below 6 years of age due to a decline in birth rate,” said an official from the department of school education and literacy.</p>.<p>But experts are of the opinion that the children are migrating from state schools to CBSE and ICSE boards.</p>.<p>“Reduction in children’s population is a general thing. But here, the reason for the decline in numbers is migration to other boards. When it comes to state board, a majority are government-run schools and students withdrawing admissions from government schools matters a lot,” said V P Niranjanaradhya, development educationist.</p>.RGUHS puts plan to introduce AI in evaluation on hold over accuracy concerns.<p>He said parents were losing hopes on government schools. “The government thinks it can attract admissions by giving freebies like shoes, uniforms and mid-day meals alone. But in reality parents look at quality education. The process of education at CBSE and ICSE is a continuous one. Other board schools have regular teachers and those teachers will not be sent on survey works, like in the case of government school teachers, which distracts academic activity for more than three months in a year. While enrolling children, parents consider all these factors,” he said. </p>.<p>As per the academic calendar of the department, admissions for the current year officially got over on July 31, with 99,47,261 students enrolling as against 1.4 crore in 2024-25 and 1.5 crore in 2023-24. However, government schools allow admissions throughout the year. </p>.<p>The recently released UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education) report for 2024-25 of the union government highlighted the drop in admissions from pre-primary to class 12 at state board schools. </p>.<p>As stated in the report, the enrolment of children in 2024-25 was 1,17,80,251 against 1,19,26,303 in 2023-24. </p>.<p><strong>Official’s take</strong></p>.<p>“It is the result of a combination of factors like less population (declining birth rate), migration to other boards, etc... To address such issues, we are focusing more on learning-based assessment to improve quality at our schools. With Karnataka Public Schools and two-language policy, we are hoping to attract more enrolments in coming years,” Dr Trilok Chandra K V, commissioner of department of school education, told DH. </p>
