New Delhi
There has been a decline in the number of students going to schools in India. According to government data, about 37 lakh students have left school in the year 2023-24, including 16 lakh girls. The number of students leaving school in 2023-24 is more as compared to the year 2022-23. This data has come to light in a report of the Integrated District Education Information System (UDISE) of the Ministry of Education.
According to the report, a total of 25.17 crore students were enrolled in schools in 2022-23, while this number dropped to 24.80 crore in 2023-24 and was around 26.52 crore in 2021-2022. According to this, there has been a decline of 37.45 lakh students in enrollment in primary, upper primary and higher secondary schools. Thus, in 2023-24, there was a decline of 16 lakh in the enrollment of girls, while there was a decline of 21 lakh in the enrollment of boys.
participation of minorities
UDISE 2023-24 collected personal data of students and their Aadhaar numbers for the first time on a voluntary basis. By 2023-24, 19.7 crore students will share their Aadhaar numbers. Of the total enrolment, 20% students were from minority communities. Of these, 79.6% were Muslims, 10% Christians, 6.9% Sikhs, 2.2% Buddhists, 1.3% Jains and 0.1% Parsi communities.
racial classification
According to the report, registered at the national level (as per UDISE data), 26.9% students are from General Category, 18% from Scheduled Caste, 9.9% from Scheduled Tribe and 45.2% from Other Backward Class. The report also said that the availability of schools, teachers and enrolled students varies from state to state.
Identification of ‘ghost students’
Personal data helped in identifying fake students (‘ghost students’) and extending the benefits of government schemes to the right students. This made savings and better management of government expenditure possible. A senior official said that this is the first time that individual student data was collected at the national level. Therefore, this data is not comparable to 2021-22 or earlier data. This process is separate from school-wise data, which reveals the actual situation of the education system.
Ratio of schools to students in states
In Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan, the number of schools is more than the number of students. At the same time, in Telangana, Punjab, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Bihar, the number of students is more than schools. The report states that the new data system will accurately track student dropouts and progress in education, which will help in achieving the goals of the National Education Policy 2020.
