Only 39% schools in India had computers, 22% had net connection in 2019-20: UDISE report

NEW DELHI: Only 39 percent of schools in the country had computers while only 22 percent had an internet connection in 2019-20, according to the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report released on Tuesday. The report also said that more than 90 percent of schools had hand-wash facilities in 2019-20, a major improvement from 2012-13 when it was just 36.3 percent.

"About 39 pc schools in India had computers in 2019-20, an improvement by more than 6 pc over the previous year. More than 22 pc schools in India had internet connectivity in 2019-20, an improvement of more than 3.5 pc over the previous year," the report said. During the period, more than 83 percent of schools had electricity in 2019-20, an improvement by almost 7 percent over the previous year, 2018-19. "In 2012-13, about 54.6 pc schools had electricity. More than 84 pc schools in India had a library/reading room/reading corner in 2019-20, an improvement of nearly 4 pc compared to the previous year. In 2012-13, about 69.2 pc schools had library/ reading room/ reading corner," it said.

Unified District Information on School Education (UDISE), initiated in 2012-13 by the Ministry of Education by integrating DISE for elementary education and SEMIS for secondary education, is one of the largest Management Information Systems on school education covering more than 1.5 million schools, 8.5 million teachers and 250 million children. UDISE+ is an updated and improved version of UDISE.

A total of 26.45 crore students were enrolled in school education from pre-primary to higher secondary in 2019-20, up by 42.3 lakhs compared to 2018-19, the report has noted. The enrolment of girls increased at all levels of school education in 2019-20 compared to 2018-19. The increase was highest in the pre-primary level. "In 2019-20, total students in school education from primary to higher secondary is a little above 25.09 crores. This is higher by 26.3 lakhs compared to 2018-19. There is a net addition of 42.3 lakh students in school education in the year 2019-20 compared to 2018-19 which is higher by 1.6 percent," the report said.

The number of teachers in school education increased by 2.72 percent in 2019-20 compared to 2018-19. In 2019-20, 96.87 lakh teachers were engaged in school education, about 2.57 lakhs higher compared to the statistics in 2018-19.

The report has pointed out that the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at all levels of school education had improved in 2019-20 compared to 2018-19. "The GER increased to 89.7 pc (from 87.7 pc) at Upper Primary level, 97.8 pc (from 96.1 pc) at Elementary Level, 77.9 pc (from 76.9 pc) at Secondary Level and 51.4 pc (from 50.1 pc) at Higher Secondary Level in 2019-20 (from 2018-19),” it said. "Between 2012-13 and 2019-20, the GER for girls at both secondary and higher secondary level has increased more than that of the boys. GER for girls at the secondary level has gone up by 9.6 pc to reach 77.8 pc in 2019-20, it was 68.2 pc in 2012-13," it added.

More than 82 percent of schools conducted a medical check-up of students in 2019-20, an improvement by more than 4 percent over the previous year, 2018-19. "In 2012-13, about 61.1 pc schools conducted medical check-up for students," it said.

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