School admission dips for third year in a row; 'slowdown of birth rate' cited as reason

School admission fell for the third year in a row with the new government data placing an 11-lakh decline in the year 2023-24. Government schools and government schools are credited with the dip in admission, but that of private school admission has risen with the passage of time.

The figures of the Ministry of Education's UDISE+ — monitoring and reporting school education indicators from pre-primary to higher secondary level — show gross enrolment for 2024-25 falling to 24.69 crore from 24.80 crore in 2023-24 and 25.18 crore in 2022-23.

The year when the enrolment fell in UDISE+ figures was 2022-23 — when schools re-opened after the lockdown during the pandemic. Ministry officials had previously put the decline — of more than a crore from the four-year average — down to a methodological shift in data collection. Student by student, one by one, UDISE+ data have since 2022-23 been collected and not cumulative school-wise data. Maybe, maybe the methodological shift would have been beneficial in removing the double enrollments, officials had maintained.

Releasing the data of last year's UDISE+ on Thursday, a senior Education Ministry official explained the decreasing enrolment numbers for the third consecutive year as "demographic changes with declining birth rates." Figures of a new Census alone would decide if a population change was the cause behind the decrease in the primary school-going age, according to the official.

Meanwhile private school enrollment increased in comparison to government schools since 2022.  The decline in 2024-25 with respect to the previous year earlier in enrolment is in the lower classes (classes 1 through 5). Everywhere else — pre-primary, higher primary (classes 6-8), secondary (classes 9-10), and higher secondary (classes 11-12) — marginal enrolment improves.

Ministry officials also used the decline in 2024-25 dropout rate compared to 2022-23 as an example. For secondary level, where there was a dropout issue, the percentage of dropouts has fallen from 13.8% in 2022-23 to 8.2% in 2024-25.

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) — enrolment as a percentage of age-group population at a level of schooling — indicates GER for foundation level (classes pre-primary to class 2) remained virtually unchanged in 2024-25 (41.4%) and the last year 2023-24 (41.5%). GER dipped slightly for 2024-25 (95.4%) from 2023-24 (96.5%) at the preparatory level (classes 3-5). On middle (6-8 classes), and secondary (9-12 classes) GER has risen relative to that of 2023-24. On GER, the spokesperson added that the figure has been worked out based on 'projected population' of 2011 census and added that one new census can give exact numbers.

Boys' enrolment dropped in 2024-25 —12.76 crore from 12.87 crore in 2023-24. Girls' enrolment rose by a fraction —from 11,93,01,237 in 2023-24 to 11,93,34,162 in 2024-25.