Less than 50% students in government schools – a first since 2012-13: Govt Data

NEW DELHI: While enrolment in government schools increased in absolute terms, the percentage of a total number of students attending them has dropped to less than half for the first time since 2012-13. From 51.3% in 2017-18, it has dropped to 49.5% in 2019-20, the latest statistics show. The education minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ released the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+) 2019-20 report on July 1.

The biggest gainers from the exit from public education have been private unaided schools whose share of students has increased from 34.4% in 2017-18 to 37.1%.

Similarly, over 2.5 lakh teachers have joined the education system from 2018-19 to 2019-20, but public education’s share has again declined, from 53.9% teachers in 2017-18 to 51% in 2019-20. In 2012-13, it was 57.3%.

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UDISE+ is the only nation-wide repository of data on schooling in India. Originally set up by the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), it is now managed by the ministry of education’s department of school education and literacy. The analysis -- the education ministry’s and Careers360’s -- considers 2012-13 because that year, the public databases for elementary and secondary education -- DISE and SEMIS -- were merged to form UDISE.

Here are seven charts on school education based on UDISE+ data for 2019-20 and before.

Students in government schools

The proportion of students in government schools has steadily declined. While there’s anecdotal information on children returning to government schools because their families migrated or faced economic hardship due to COVID-19, that shift is yet to show up in government data. In the school sector, the largest number of students are in state-run government schools and private unaided ones. “Aided schools”, which are government-funded but privately managed, account for just 5.6% of the total number of schools.

Percentage of students by the type of institution they attend:

Government school enrolment

The percentage of students attending government schools has declined steadily from 2012-13 when it was 57.3%.

Teachers: Government and private

While the number of teachers has risen by about 2.57 lakh overall, the proportion of government school teachers has declined.

Teachers by gender

The proportion of women teachers has crossed the half mark.

India’s schools by management

Despite the fall in the share of enrolment, 68.5% of schools in India are public institutions. The drop in enrolment has been noted by the Union Government and central policies have led to widespread closures of schools across the country. Although described as “school rationalisation”, the process of selecting schools for closure has caused much distress to rural and tribal populations in states like Odisha where the High Court stepped in to reverse the policy.

Also Read |Over 40,000 schools in MP, Odisha and Jharkhand merged under NITI Aayog project

Gross enrolment ratio

The Gross enrolment ratio (GER) compares the enrolment in a specific level of education to the population of that appropriate age group. The GER of primary level is student enrolment in Classes 1 to 5 expressed as a percentage of the population in the age group of six-10 years. While the GER has improved for primary classes, upper primary schooling is still far from universal.

India has a law, the Right to Education Act 2009, which guarantees free public education from the age of six to 14, or Classes 1 to 8. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 proposes universalising even secondary education by 2030 but not a law to support that effort.

COVID-19 and learning

The COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to shift to teaching online in 2020. While the UDISE+ data predates the pandemic, it is an indicator of how prepared schools were for the shift to online teaching and learning. The short answer is: they weren’t.

Also Read | No smartphones or internet, a UP teacher calls up students to teach

As the data shows, even in 2019-20, less than a quarter of schools had an internet connection and less than 40% had computers.