More girls, poor and backward enroll in School Education

The Report on Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2021-22 that the Union Ministry of Education has released is heartening as the primary or secondary school enrolment, cutting across gender, backwardness and poverty, has gone up, compared to what the situation was three years ago.

It has improved by 32% over the year 2018-19.

The UDISE+ system of online data collection from the schools was developed by the Department of School Education & Literacy in the year 2018-19 to overcome the issues related to erstwhile practice of manual data filling in paper format. In UDISE+ system, improvements have been made particularly in the areas related to data capture, data mapping and data verification.

In UDISE+ 2021-22, additional data on important indicators viz., digital library, peer learning, hard spot identification, number of books available in school library, etc have been collected for the first time to align with the NEP 2020 initiatives.

Students and Teachers in School Education:

In 2021-22 total students enrolled in school education from primary to higher secondary stood at 25.57 crore as compared to 25.38 crore enrolment in 2020-21, registering an increase of 19.36 lakh enrolments.

The total number of Scheduled caste enrolments increased to 4.82 Crore in 2021-22 as compared to 4.78 Crore in 2020-21.

Similarly, total Scheduled Tribe enrolment increased to 2.51 crore in 2021-22 from 2.49 crore in 2020-21.

Total other backward students also increased to 11.48 crore in 2021-22 from 11.35 crore in 2020-21.

Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) which measures the general level of participation has improved in 2021-22 at primary, upper primary, and higher secondary levels of school education, as compared to 2020-21.

Notably, GER in higher secondary has made a significant improvement from 53.8% in 2021-21 to 57.6% in 2021-22.

Total enrolment of Children with Special Needs (CWSN) in 2021-22 stands at 22.67 lakh as compared to 21.91 lakh in 2020-21 showing an improvement of 3.45% over 2020-21.

95.07 lakh teachers are engaged in school education during 2021-22 out of which more than 51% are female teachers.

Further, in 2021-22, the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) stood at 26 for primary, 19 for upper primary, 18 for secondary and 27 for higher secondary, showing an improvement since 2018-19. The PTR for primary, upper primary, secondary, and higher secondary was 28, 19, 21, and 30 respectively during 2018-19.

In 2021-22 over 12.29 crore girls are enrolled in primary to higher secondary showing an increase of 8.19 lakh compared to the enrolment of girls in 2020-21.

The Gender Parity Index (GPI) of GER shows the representation of females in school education is in line with the representation of girls in the population of the corresponding age group.

The GPI value at all levels of school education is one or more implying more participation of girls in school education.

In 2021-22, the total number of Scheduled Caste (SC) students from Primary to Higher Secondary has gone up to 4.83 crore from 4.78 crore in 2020-21. Similarly, total Scheduled Tribe (ST) students have gone up from 2.49 crore to 2.51 crore, and Other Backward Caste (OBC) students from 11.35 crore to 11.49 crore during 2020-21 and 2021-22.

The total number of schools in 2021-22 stood at 14.89 lakhs as compared to 15.09 lakhs in 2020-21. The decline in total schools is mainly due to the closure of private and other management schools and the grouping/ clustering of schools by various States.

School Infrastructure: Impact of Samagra Shiksha scheme:

The availability of basic infrastructure facilities in schools as of 2021-22 are as follows:

– Electricity connection: 89.3%

– Drinking water: 98.2%

– Girls’ toilet: 97.5%

– CWSN toilet: 27%

– Handwash facility: 93.6%

– Playground: 77%

– Ramp with Handrail for CWSN: 49.7%

– Library/ Reading room/ Reading corner: 87.3%

Sustainable Environment Initiatives for School

– Kitchen Garden: 27.7%

– Rain Water Harvesting: 21%

Overall, the progress can be termed as satisfactory