A new report called UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education Plus) for 2023-24 shows a significant drop in student enrollment in India.
Here's a simplified breakdown:
The Big Picture: Overall student enrollment has dropped by over one crore (10 million) students, down to 24.8 crore (248 million). This is a big change, as enrollment had been stable around 26 crore (260 million) for the past four years.
The Trend:
2018-19: 26.02 crore
2019-20: 26.45 crore (slight increase)
2020-21: slight decrease
2021-22: slight increase
2022-23: 25.18 crore (decrease)
2023-24: 24.8 crore (significant decrease)
What is UDISE+? It's a system that collects information about schools and students. They've recently improved it to collect more data, including optional Aadhaar (national ID) numbers for students. This helps make the data more accurate by avoiding duplicate entries.
Unique IDs: Every student now has a unique ID in the system. This helps avoid errors and is important for government programs that give benefits to students.
Gender Differences: Enrollment has decreased for both boys and girls:
Boys: down from 13.53 crore to 12.87 crore
Girls: down from 12.49 crore to 11.93 crore
Regional Differences: Some states saw bigger drops than others:
Bihar: a large drop of over 35 lakh students
Uttar Pradesh: a significant drop of over 28 lakh students
Maharashtra: a notable drop of over 18 lakh students
Why is this important? This drop in enrollment is a serious concern. The government will use this UDISE+ data to try to figure out why this is happening and create new policies to get more children back in school.
In simple terms: Fewer children are enrolling in schools in India. The government is using a new data system to understand why and plan how to fix it. This is important for the future of education in the country.