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“India will grow only if India studies.” But is India really reading? 1.72 crore children have dropped out of school in the last two years, the first major decline in six years. In 2023-24, 88 lakh fewer students took admission in government schools compared to the previous year. States like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have seen the biggest decline, with Bihar alone losing 35.65 lakh students.
Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+) The report highlights this worrying trend. School enrollment has fallen from 26.5 crore in 2021-22 to 24.8 crore in 2023-24. Even at the primary level, there has been a decline of 46 lakh in enrollment last year.
UDISE+ suggests possible reasons for this decline:
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Better methods of data collection. Earlier, many children were dual enrolled in government schools while studying in private schools. Now Aadhaar verification has stopped this practice.
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Reverse migration means that during COVID-19, many families moved from cities to villages, and shifted their children from private to government schools. Now, as they return to cities, they are enrolling their children back in private schools.
However, even for these reasons, the total enrollment rate should have increased or remained stable. This raises questions related to the authenticity of previous years’ data.
The problem goes beyond student enrollment as teacher shortage is also a major concern. More than 110,000 schools in India have only one teacher, making it difficult to provide proper education.
The rising number of school dropouts and rising private education costs highlight deepening divisions in India’s education system. The lack of adequate teachers and falling enrollment rates represent a serious challenge in providing quality education to all, so Quint Hindi’s Shadab Moizi asks, ‘Sir, how come?’
