Student enrollment in schools drop by 37.45 lakh in 2023-24, reveals education ministry report
Student enrolment across primary to higher secondary schools dropped by 37.45 lakh in 2023-24, with significant declines among girls, SC, ST, and OBC students. The education ministry's UDISE+ report highlights a marginal rise in pre-primary enrolment and an increase in total schools by 5,782.
FollowNew Delhi: The total enrolment of students across primary, upper primary, and higher secondary schools declined by 37.45 lakh in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 and by 1.71 crore compared to 2021-22, according to a new report released by the education ministry.
In percentage terms, this decline is approximately 1.5% in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 and around 6.5% compared to 2021-22.
The gross enrolment of students in pre-primary to higher secondary schools stood at 24.80 crore in 2023-24, down from 25.17 crore in 2022-23 and 26.52 crore in 2021-22.
The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), which reports on school education in the country, revealed a marginal rise in student enrolment at the pre-primary level. However, significant declines were observed in primary, upper primary, secondary, and higher secondary schools.
In pre-primary schools, student enrolment rose by around 29 lakh in 2023-24, reaching 1.30 crore, compared to 1.01 crore in 2022-23. In 2021-22, the enrolment stood at 94.95 lakh.
As per the report, the number of girl students decreased by 29 lakh to 11.32 crore, while the number of boy students fell by about 37 lakh to 12.17 crore in 2023-24.
Utsav Kumar Singh, Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, told Asianet Newsable:
“Education is key to human flourishing.”
Singh, who is also the author of the book “Regional Dimensions of Human Development in India and South Africa: Sustainable Development Goals”, argued that the success of India's long-term development agenda, Vikashit Bharat @2047, is highly dependent on an educated and skilled workforce.
“Currently, India is experiencing a population bulge, and the government must transform the quantity (population) into quality (educated and skilled workforce),” Singh added.
He emphasized that the decrease in school enrolment requires immediate government attention and suggested that the government must introduce comprehensive education policies to revive the earlier successes of the school education system.
The report also highlighted significant declines in enrolment among students from social categories such as Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SC), and Scheduled Tribes (ST).
The total enrolment of Scheduled Caste students fell by 16.23 lakh in 2023-24, reaching 4.28 crore, compared to 4.44 crore in 2022-23 and 4.82 crore in 2021-22.
Similarly, Scheduled Tribe enrolment dropped by 5.14 lakh to 2.34 crore in 2023-24, down from 2.39 crore in 2022-23 and 2.51 crore in 2021-22.
As for OBC students, 10.65 crore were enrolled in 2023-24 compared to 11.04 crore in 2022-23.
Meanwhile, the total number of schools increased by 5,782 to 14.71 lakh in 2023-24 compared to 14.66 lakh in 2022-23. However, this figure remains lower than in previous years, with 14.89 lakh schools in 2021-22 and 15.09 lakh in 2020-21.
The decline in the number of schools has been attributed to the closure of private and other management grouping schools, as well as the clustering of schools implemented by several state governments.
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