Educational Mess Drop in Enrolment, Funds

Dhurjati Mukherjee

The Cockroach Janata Party’s launching of “School Thik Karo” campaign with an aim to improve condition of government schools in rural areas across the country, is refreshing. Imagine the state of education which has its share in the Union budget having declined from 4.6 to around 2.5 per cent over the past decade and the number of government elementary schools across the country decreasing by nearly 10,000 in a year with Meghalaya, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh recording the steepest decline.

The government has been harping on progress, but recent data showed that though the population has been increasing, the enrolment figures are not encouraging. Even after the much publicised ‘Right to Education’ Act came into existence, there has not been any perceptible change in tackling the number of dropouts. The poor are affected as a significant section cannot afford higher education in private schools.

The recent Unified District Information System Plus [UDISE+) report for 2025-26 found the number of students in government schools dropping from 12.16 crore in 2024-25 to 11.89 cores in the last fiscal despite a marginal increase in total enrolment in private and government-aided schools. The number of government schools also decreased at a faster rate from 10.13 lakh to 10.05 lakh to 10.05 lakh during the same period than the total number of schools. Though the rationalisation of schools may be justified, there is need to modernise schools and equip them with adequate numbers of teachers.

It is distressing to note that over one lakh schools – government, government-aided and private – are functioning with a single teacher as revealed by government data in the Rajya Sabha. It highlights several deployment gaps despite the country’s overall pupil-teacher ratio remaining within the national norms. Additionally, teaching has been affected by teachers’ involvement in the Special Intensive Revision and census work. Educationists have decried the roping in of teachers for non-academic activities, thereby affecting their educational obligations. It’s a well-known fact that students in government schools come from poor backgrounds and most of them cannot afford private tuition. It has been contended, and quite rightly, that this is a design to deprive the poor of quality education.

Some facts need to be considered. A recently released NITI Aayog report titled ‘School Education System in India: Temporal Analysis & Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement’, reveals that nearly one lakh government schools closed down between 2014 and 2024, playing a significant role in the decline of 2.26 crore in children’s enrolment during this decade. It found that while 26.95 crore children were enrolled in schools in 2014-15, their numbers declined to 24.69 in 2024-25. During this period, the number of government schools also declined from 11.07 lakh to 10.13 lakh, while the number of government-aided schools followed the same pattern. As against this, in that decade the number of private schools increased from 2.88 lakh to 3.39 lakh!

As pointed out in the report, the reduction in school enrolment is “partly attributable to demographic shifts, particularly falling fertility rates, leading to a smaller school-age population, alongside the effects of a school consolidation and challenges in retention at higher levels of education”. Another aspect is the merger of schools, which may be attributed to the drop in school enrolment. Two states, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh witnessed the merger of nearly 40,000 schools. Plus, the dropout rate was the sharpest at the secondary level or Class IX and X, where it has been as high as 11.5 per cent though unofficial figures point out that it may not be less than 20 per cent.

Reports also indicate that subjects such as mathematics, specially algebra and geometry, may be a reason for dropouts. According to some activists, the merger of schools defeats the objective of universalisation of education, which the government is committed under the SDG 2030. The policy of merging schools may become a hindrance in achieving goals of spreading education while in some cases it may be justified.

Importantly, the report highlights inadequate laboratory facilities which are intrinsic to quality education in the science stream fell to 54.6 per cent in 2025-26 from 57.4 per cent in the previous fiscal. Obviously, the report notes this may lead to more dropouts at the secondary levels unless corrective action is taken. At the same time, it’s gratifying to note that over the years government schools have made the sharpest gains in internet connectivity. The coverage increased, says the report, from 46.2 per cent in 2023-24 to 63.1 per cent in 2025-26 and narrowed their gap with aided and private schools. It showed 67.4 per cent of schools had internet facilities, up from 63.5 per cent in 2024-25.

Many experts consider Class VIII a kind of academic watershed for children, which has caused the increase in dropout rates. This is surprising as mid-day meals are being given to students, but perhaps the economic compulsions of students’ families is greater, specially for girl students which may be the overriding factor.

The question arises what will happen to students who come from the poor and backward sections but some of whom have merit, if properly groomed. Education is on the Concurrent List and the Centre has a responsibility in helping the states to spread education, specially in the remote and backward districts.

The project PM SHRI (Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India) of the Centre has sadly not been successful in opening schools in all districts of the country though it should have a target of starting classes IX and XII immediately in backward districts. Higher education needs focus with a proper curriculum so that students, who do not want to pursue further studies, can eke out a living. It’s critical that an expert committee should frame a policy paper in consultation with educationists at the earliest.

As for higher education, enrolment in under-graduate programmes at educational institutions declined for the first time with experts attributing the trend to the government’s increased emphasis on vocational education, growing disillusionment among young people about the value of higher education and job availability. As per reports of the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) for 2022-23 and 2023-24, Under-Graduate enrolment fell by one lakh students in 2023-24 compared with previous year.

Prof. S. Thorat, former UGC chairman and other experts attributed the decline to greater emphasis on skill education at the school level, multiple exit options at the UG level, reduced public funding for higher education institutions and discontinuance of several scholarship schemes, both at the school and college levels.

Based on the above data and ground realities in rural schools, it can be established without any doubt that the prevailing situation fails to raise much hope. Other than the reasons cited, education per se doesn’t receive priority as a crucial facet of life. Thus, there is an urgent need for the government to ponder over the grim state of affairs and act by taking corrective and concrete steps.---INFA