School enrolment fell by 37 lakh in 2023-24: Education ministry data

New Delhi: Enrolment in schools across India fell by 37 lakh in 2023-24 as compared to the previous year, Ministry of Education's UDISE data showed.

The Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) Plus is a data aggregation platform maintained by the education ministry to collate school education data from across the country.

While the number of enrolled students in 2022-23 was 25.17 crore, the figures for 2023-24 stood at 24.80 crore. The number of girl students dropped by 16 lakh during the period under review, while the number of boy students fell by 21 lakh. The representation of minorities in total enrolment stood at around 20 per cent. Among the minorities, 79.6 per cent were Muslims, 10 per cent Christians, 6.9 per cent Sikhs, 2.2 per cent Buddhists, 1.3 per cent Jains, and 0.1 per cent Parsis.

At the national level, 26.9 per cent students registered in UDISE+ were from the general category, 18 per cent from Scheduled Caste, 9.9 per cent from Scheduled Tribe, and 45.2 per cent from the Other Backward Class category.

UDISE+ 2023-24 attempted to collect student-wise data along with their Aadhaar numbers on voluntary basis to establish a uniqueness. Overall, more than 19.7 crore students provided Aadhaar numbers by 2023-24.

Officials, however, clarified that the data observed some real changes from the previous years, as this exercise of maintaining a separate student base is totally different, unique and incomparable to 2021-22 or prior years.

The student-wise data helps identify 'ghost students', and aids in transferring benefits to the deserving students, resulting in savings to government and good governance by way of better expenditure management, they said.

"Individual student-wise data reflects a realistic and more accurate picture of the education system, which is being attempted for the first time at the national level, marking a departure from the school-wise consolidated data collected till 2021-22. Hence, the data is not strictly comparable to the previous reports on various educational indicators such as GER, NER, dropout rates, etc.," a senior official said.

The Gross Enrolment Ratio (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.

"Curtailing dropouts and ensuring universal access to education at all levels by 2030 is one of the primary goals of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Areas such as enrolment and retention of students show how many students who entered the school at Class-1 are being retained in subsequent years, representing effectiveness of policy.

"With individual student-wise data, dropout of students can now be identified precisely, who can be tracked and be brought back to school. This will also help monitor the progression of students through their entire school life. It is calculated based on actual movement of students from one level to another using individual student-wise data. It represents the actual scenario more precisely," the official said.

The report also noted that the availability of schools, teachers and students enrolled in different states are different.

"In states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, 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, Gujrat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Bihar, the percentage of available schools is significantly less as compared to enrolled students, indicating better utilisation of infrastructure," the report said.