THE Ministry of Education (MoE) last week released the Unified District Information System for Education Plus report making available the latest data regarding the total enrollment of students in 2023-24. The report gives the lie to the tall claims being made by the government about improvements in the education sector and reveals the stark truth that the total enrollment of students has dropped by over a crore in 2023-24 as compared to the previous years.

 A total of 24.8 crore students were enrolled in 2023-24 which is a drop of 37 lakh students as compared to the previous year. In 2018-19, however, the total enrollment of students in school was 26.02 crore; in the next year, 2019-20, it increased by 1.6 per cent and crossed 26.45 crore, an increase of more than 42 lakh students. Even back in 2012-13, the total enrolment was 26.3 crore. This fall in enrollment becomes even more glaring if the increase in population in the twelve years 2012-2024 is factored in. 

The report analyses the drop of 37 lakh students in 2023-24 as compared to the previous year and states that while female students saw a decline of 16 lakhs, 21 lakh male students also left the educational system.

The ministry mentions that the system for counting enrollment has been made more effective and this maybe the explanation for some differences in numbers with previous years.  It is significant, however, that the ministry itself says that the drop in enrollment is a matter of deep concern and must be addressed at the earliest.

It is important to note that BJP-ruled states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have seen the highest drop in enrollments. In 2018-19, Bihar reflected an enrollment of over 2.49 crore students which dropped to over 2.13 crore (a dip of over 35.65 lakh students).  Uttar Pradesh had shown enrollment of 4.44 crore students in 2018-19 which dropped by 28.26 lakh to 4.16 crore in the latest data. Maharashtra recorded a decrease of 18.55 lakh students from over 2.32 crore to 2.13 crore in the latest report.

After the release of the data, many reasons for this decline are being put forward by different experts. Changes in education policy, growing economic hardship, non-payment or irregular payment of scholarship money are being cited as important reasons.

The National Education Policy introduced by the BJP government three years ago gives much importance to private education and many BJP states like Haryana have actually paid subsidies to children enrolled in private schools while enhancing fees charged by government schools.  Most of the BJP ruled states (and also states like Rajasthan under both Congress and BJP regimes) have seen large-scale closures of government schools and also mergers of government schools.  This has meant that the distance that children from the poorest families, often dalit and adivasi, have to travel to school has increased so much that often they have to stop attending school.  In the case of girl students, the insecurity that such travel entails is a further discouragement. 

The UDISE report of 2022 had stated that more than 50,000 government schools had been closed in the country in 2018-19.  In 2024, it was reported that the UP government had closed 27,000 schools.  These reports mention that, especially in Bihar and Maharashtra, there was a spurt in the opening of private schools.  The fact that enrollment figures show a decline in these two states and in Uttar Pradesh seems to indicate that the closure of government schools is having an adverse effect on enrollment and that private schools simply cannot close the gap.

The example of Kerala seems to prove the point that emphasis on free, public education is the way not only to enhanced enrollment but to enhanced retention and also access to quality education. Kerala's Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for 2021-2022 was 41.3 per cent, which is higher than the national average of 28.4 per cent. GER is a key indicator of the level of participation in higher education among a specific age group.  In the latest 2023-24 report also, Kerala’s enrollment figures are very encouraging.  It is also appreciable that women students actually outnumber men in the state.  State expenditure on education, State funding of improvements in government schools, prompt payment of scholarships, the provision of a healthy, congenial atmosphere in schools where even sanitary napkins are provided to the girl-students have contributed to the high enrollment and retention rates of schools in the state.  Kerala now has the distinction of more students being enrolled in government schools than in private ones.

The disturbing facts revealed by the latest UDISE report must be looked at in the context of other problems that students, especially from poor and socially oppressed sections face in many of the states.  Government surveys reveal that most schools do not have separate toilets for girls; many toilets do not have doors; many schools lack access to water supply; the buildings of many schools are in very bad shape; classrooms lack ventilation and, often, chairs and tables.  There have been cases of molestation and sexual violence against students by teachers, principals and school employees in many states.  There are innumerable incidents of caste discrimination in schools in most parts of the country.  All these factors are responsible for the sorry state of education.

A very glaring shortcoming in many states is the large number of ‘single-teacher schools’ i.e., schools where 4-6 (and even 8) classes have only one teacher. According to government reports, in 2023-24, there were 110,971 schools in India with a single teacher. 89 per cent of single-teacher schools are in rural areas and Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are among the states with a high percentage of single-teacher schools.

It is important to note that there are a large number of single-teacher schools in Himachal Pradesh and a few in Kerala too but here the number of students is very small.  In Himachal, single-teacher schools have less than 20 children while in Kerala they have 10 students on average.   In fact Kerala has the least number of single-teacher schools and the least number of students studying in such schools in the entire country.  This can be compared to the fact that in Uttar Pradesh, the average number of students in a single-teacher school is 70, in Bihar it is 96. 

What is disturbing, therefore, is not only the reduction in total enrollment that the latest government report reveals but the fact that the condition of schools and the level of teaching in most states is abysmal.  Kerala does stand out in comparison.  Here it is important to add that Kerala does not have para-teachers or contract teachers in government schools.  Its teachers have permanent jobs and are expected to constantly improve their skills and teaching methods.  This is regularly monitored.  Compared to this, UP has more than 24,000 ‘instructors’—teachers on contract—who are paid Rs 7,000 per month to teach classes one to eight.  Many of them work as tailors, autorickshaw drivers, shop assistants etc., in order to augment their meager earnings. In addition, there are also 1,42,000 ‘shiksha mitras’ employed on yearly contracts.  It is unimaginable that they will be able to concentrate on teaching when the threat of being thrown out of employment is part of their lives.  In addition to this, there are nearly 1 lakh vacancies in posts of principals and teachers in government schools.

Falling enrollment in schools and extremely low standards of education in most states are extremely grave portents for the future.  The example of Kerala’s success in both high enrollment and retention and in constant improvements in the public education system must be publicised and emulated in order to bring about absolutely essential change.