Student enrolment rose in BEd, fell in BTech over 5 years: AISHE

NEW DELHI: Bachelor in Education (BEd), the full-time two-year course for those who want to become school teachers, has seen students’ enrolment grow 73% in five years– from 8.11 lakh in 2016-17 to 14.03 lakh in 2020-2021. It is the second programme to see such a massive hike, after Bachelor of Law (LLB) courses, with an enrolment increase of 99.4% over the same period, according to data in the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2020-21.

A total of 43,796 colleges affiliated to 314 universities had registered under AISHE 2020-21. According to the report, 35.8% of colleges run only single programmes and of them, 82.2% are privately managed. Of these, 30.9% run Bachelor of Education courses only.

The ministry of education has conducted the AISHE since 2011. It collects information on student enrolment, teacher’s data, infrastructural and financial information and more.

The BEd, like the LLB, is an undergraduate professional course that can be pursued only after completion of a bachelor's degree. However, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 states that by 2030 the minimum educational qualification for teachers will be a four-year integrated BEd degree.

BTech enrolment drops 10%

Total enrolment in higher education has increased to nearly 4.14 crore in 2020-21 from 3.85 crore in 2019-20, says the AISHE report. Out of the total enrolment of 4,13,80,713 students, the vast majority – 3.26 crore – is in undergraduate studies (78.9%) followed by 11.4% or 47.16 lakh in postgraduate studies. Among disciplines at undergraduate level, enrolment is highest in arts (33.5%), followed by science (15.5%), commerce (13.9%) and engineering and technology (11.9%).

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Except bachelor of technology (BTech) and bachelor of engineering (BE), all other undergraduate courses have seen student enrolment rise between 2016 and 2021. BTech and BE enrolment saw a substantial decrease of 10.3% – from 40,85,321 to 36,63,685 – over the same period.

Higher Education UG Enrolment: Rise and fall

BEd Degree: Enrolment up 200%

In the decade from 2011-12 to 2020-21, BEd enrolment increased 221.1% from 4,36,875 in 2011-12 to 14,02,955 in 2020-21. This is the highest enrolment growth in a regular undergraduate course in the same period, according to an analysis of AISHE data.

The majority of the private single-programme colleges are running BEd courses only, shows the AISHE data. This is a major factor contributing to a growth in enrolment of BEd courses.

In 2020-21, 35.8% colleges out of 43,796 – 15,678 in absolute numbers – were running only single programmes; and close to a third of these 15,678 colleges – 4,844 – were offering BEd only. Similarly in 2019-20, 37.4% of the 13,803 single-programme colleges had BEd only. In 2019-20, BEd degrees were awarded to 6 lakh students; that number rose to 6.14 lakh the next year.

Teacher Training: Slowing growth

While the total enrolment has been rising, the year-on-year growth has begun to slow down.

BEd enrolment growth

Female participation is high in the BEd course. However, for the first time since 2016, the females-per-100-males ratio in BEd dropped below 200 in 2020-21. Among the 16 major UG and PG courses, the female-to-male ratio is the second-highest in BEd and behind only BSc Nursing with 310 women for every 100 men in 2020-21 and 385 in 2019-20.

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Women in higher education

While BSc Nursing and BEd see the highest participation of women, “female participation is very high and has also increased sharply at M Com levels during the last [five] years”, says the AISHE report which further notes that it is “still very low” in undergraduate professional courses such BCA (computer application), BBA (management), BTech / BE (engineering) and LLB (law).

Following is the data of female per 100 male students in regular UG and PG programmes

In 2020-21, there were 310 women for every 100 men enrolled to study BSc Nursing and 184 women for every 100 men enrolled to study BEd In BTech, there are just 40 women enrolled for every 100 men.

More women pursue science degrees than men now. In 2020-21, out of the 48.18 lakh candidates pursuing a science degree, 25.05 lakh (52%) were women. A total of 6.79 lakh students enrolled in science postgraduate programmes, of whom 4.16 lakh (61.3%) were women.

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The proportion of women students in premiere higher educational institutes is yet to improve. Of the 3.06 lakh students enrolled in Institutes of National Importance like Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), only 0.79 lakh were women, or 25.8%. There were 3.37 lakh women students enrolled in central universities constituting 47.9% out of total enrolment of 7.03 lakh.