UDISE Plus 2023-24 shows school enrolment drop of 37 lakh spread across categories, levels

NEW DELHI: The total enrolment of school students in India has seen a major drop across categories and education levels in 2023-24, when compared to 2022-23, as per the UDISE Plus data released by the education ministry.

According to the UDISE Plus data, total enrolment in schools across India has fallen by 37 lakh in 2023-24, when compared to the previous year. In the secondary stage (Classes 9 to 12), the total student enrolment has dropped by over 17 lakh.

Moreover, the gross enrolment ratios of historically-marginalised SC and Scheduled Tribes (ST) have also dropped across education levels in 2023-24 when compared to 2022-23.

Given below are the drops in enrolment by category in absolute numbers.

UDISE Plus: Total enrolment across categories (in Crore)

In 2023-24, the total enrolment of students from other backwards category (OBC) has dipped by 25 lakh. In the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, there are 12 lakh less students enrolled in schools as compared to UDISE 2022-23.

UDISE Plus: Change in data gathering

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

The education ministry, in the UDISE 2023-24 report, said that for the first time the report focuses on “individual students” as opposed to “school wise consolidated data”, which was the practice till 2021-22.

“Post implementation of National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP 2020), requisite reforms in data collection system has been necessitated and UDISE+ 2023-24 is aligned with the recommendations of NEP 2020 by shifting focus on individual student for the first time at the national level a departure from school wise consolidated data till 2021-22 and hence data from the year UDISE+ 2022-23 are not strictly comparable with the previous reports on various educational indicators,” the report says.

The ministry noted that there are changes in educational indicators making it difficult to compare data from UDISE Plus 2022-23 onwards to the previous years. All comparisons here are between UDISE Plus data from 2022-23 and 2023-24.

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UDISE Plus: Total enrolment rate drop

In UDISE Plus 2023-24, the total enrolment has declined across gender groups, social categories, and education levels. For instance, there are 3 lakh fewer students from minority communities enrolled in schools as compared to UDISE 2022-23. Muslim student enrolment has seen a drop by over one lakh.

The number of girl students has dropped by 16 lakh and the number of boy students by 21 lakh. Given below are the total enrolment numbers by student group in two years of UDISE.

UDISEPlus: Total enrolment (in crore)

The sharpest decline, unsurprisingly, is at the secondary stage where the latest report shows 17 lakh fewer students than a year ago.

The foundational stage (pre-primary to Class 2) has also seen a major drop with about 9 lakh fewer student enrolments in 2023-24. In the preparatory stage (Classes 2 to 5), there is a dip by 7 lakh students. In the middle stage (Classes 6 to 8), there is a dip in student enrolments by over 3 lakh.

Total enrolment across levels (in lakh)

The UDISE Plus now presents stages as defined in the NEP 2020 and follows the 5+3+3+4 schooling structure.

Gross enrolment ratio slips for SC, ST

The gross enrolment ratios among children from historically-disadvantaged SC and ST communities have slipped as well, shows UDISE Plus 2023-24 data.

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Except for the gross enrolment ratio (GER) of ST students at the foundation level, which has increased by three percentage points, both SC and ST communities have seen a drop in enrolment ratio across education levels.

The GER compares the enrolment at a specific level to the population of the age-group that is most age-appropriate for that level.The NEP 2020 aims to achieve 100% GER till secondary level by 2030.

However, the latest UDISE 2023-24 data shows that, especially at the foundational and the secondary level, there is a long way to go.

For tribes, only 43.7% of children at the right age for the foundational stage of schooling are actually enrolled. This is despite the marginal improvement in GER in 2023-24 as compared to the previous year.

UDISEPlus: GER of Scheduled Tribes (%)

The data sections that have more than 100% GER is due to the students who are older or younger than the assumed appropriate age for the particular education level.

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For Dalit children, the GER has dropped by about 1.4 percentage points at the secondary level in 2023-24 and by 1.2 percentage points at the foundational level. The GER has also dipped for all education levels by a significant percentage points.

GER of Scheduled Castes (%)

The overall GER for all communities has also seen a dip, except at the secondary level. At the secondary level, there is an increase of 9.4 percentage points.

Overall GER (%)

Since the GERs at the secondary level for both SCs and STs have dropped, it can be assumed that the significant increase in overall GER at the secondary level is due to the increase seen among OBCs and the forward castes or general category.