Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
Despite school closures during the pandemic, overall enrollment figures have increased from 97.2% in 2018 to 98.4% in 2022. Image Source: IANS
In the age group of 6 to 14 years, enrolment levels have increased from 96.6 percent in 2010 to 96.7 percent in 2014, 97.2 percent in 2018, and 98.4 percent in 2022, according to the research.
ASER or the Annual Status of Education Report was released on January 18, 2023. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2022 is a nationwide citizen-led household survey that provides a snapshot of children's schooling and learning in rural India. ASER 2022 is the first field-based 'basic' nationwide ASER after a gap of 4 years. It comes at a time when children are back in school after an extended period of school closure. The ASER 2022 has revealed some interesting facts and findings. ASER 2022 shows that the enrollment of students in government schools has increased significantly in last few years. According to the report, around 72.9 percent of the total surveyed students go to government schools.
The 2022 edition of the survey, which was conducted on a nationwide scale after 4 years owing to the COVID-19 epidemic, covered 3,74,544 families and 6,99,597 children in the age range of 3 to 16 years. In the age group of 6 to 14 years, enrolment levels have increased from 96.6 percent in 2010 to 96.7 percent in 2014, 97.2 percent in 2018, and 98.4 percent in 2022, according to the research. The overall enrollment rate (private and government schools) of boys in the age group of 15-16 years increased from 87.4 percent in 2018 to 93 percent in 2022. There was also an increase in the enrollment of girls in the same age group. In 2018, the enrollment rate of girl students was 86.5 percent. It increased to 92.1 percent in 2022. Along with rising overall enrollment in the period 2018-2022, in practically all states and for all age groups, there has been a significant shift in enrollment away from private schools into government schools.
Government school enrollment for boys increased from 61.6 percent in 2018 to 69.2 percent in 2022, while it increased for girls from 68.4 percent in 2018 to 74.1 percent in 2022. Despite school closures during the pandemic, overall enrollment figures have increased from 97.2% in 2018 to 98.4% in 2022. Children studying in class I- VIII, taking paid private tuition increased from 26.4 percent in 2018 to 30.5 percent in 2022 on a national level. In Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand, the proportion of children taking paid private tuition increased by 8 percentage points or more over 2018 levels.
The chart below shows states with highest and lowest percentage of children aged 6-14 enrolled in government schools.
Source: Annual Status of Education Report
West Bengal has the highest enrollment of students in the age group of 6-14 in government schools followed by Odisha and Gujarat. Among the North-eastern states, Tripura has the highest rate of enrollment at 86.1 percent while Manipur has the lowest enrollment among all the states at 32.8 percent. It must be noted that the enrollment rate has gone up in all the states in 2022 except Jammu & Kashmir and Mizoram. The enrollment rate in the J & K in 2018 was 58.3 percent which dropped to 55.5 percent in 2022. Similarly, in Mizoram, the enrollment rate dropped from 72.4 percent in 2018 to 64.7 percent. A sharp increase in the enrollment of students in the age group of 6-14 was witnessed in Kerala. The southern state reported an increase in enrollment rate from 48 percent in 2018 to 64.5 percent in 2022.
Talking about the high enrollment in the state of West Bengal, the state government has implemented a large number of schemes for the school going students and the government also provides free text books to students from pre-primary to XII class. In the year 2018, total 8,74,92,944 number of Text Books had been distributed to the students of class Pre-Primary to class XII. Free school bags are also distributed to students studying in upper primary. The free distribution of school bags aims at higher enrollment level at the upper primary level and low dropout rate. The Utthan scheme and the Utkarsh scheme launched by the Government of Odisha were aimed at improvement of education for class VI to VIII to provide quality education. The data shows that such schemes have contributed in the rising enrollment of students. Local media agency Imphal Times reported that the low enrollment of students in Manipur is due to mismanagement and too much political interference during the last two decades.
The above data clearly suggests that the growing disparity between the states needs to be addressed on urgent basis. While the increased enrollment of children in schools is definitely encouraging it is important that this phenomenon is not limited to certain states but happens across the country.
