Lok Sabha Question No. 1768 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-10
Subject: Decline in  School Enrolment
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Dr. D Ravi Kumar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-1768

ANSWERED ON 10.03.2025

## Decline in School Enrolment

1768. Dr. D Ravi Kumar:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the measures taken by the Government to address the drop of 1.55 crore students from Government and private schools in years 2018-2022 and 2023-24;
- (b)  the  steps  being  taken  by  the  Government to prevent decline in enrolment of students in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra;
- (c) the assistances provided by the Government to these States to increase Enrolment;
- (d) the initiatives taken by the Government to find out the root cause of decline in enrollment of students such a socio-economic factor, migration and school infrastructure and to address the same; and
- (e) whether there is any link between the implementation of the National Education Policy and the decline in school enrolment during the above period?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY)

(a) and  (b):  The  Department  of  School  Education  and  Literacy  (DoSEL),  Ministry  of  Education  has developed the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) system to record data on indicators of school education provided by all the States and Union Territories. As per UDISE+, enrolment of the students for the year 2018-19 and 2023-24 is 26,02,94,216 and 24,80,45,828 respectively.

Further, education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under  the  domain  of  respective  State  and  UT  Governments.  Central  Government  assist  States  and  UTs through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha. Financial assistance is also provided to the States and UTs including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra for various activities to reduce dropout and increase  enrolment  in  Government.  schools,  which  include  opening/strengthening  of  new  schools  up  to senior  secondary  level,  strengthening  school  infrastructure,  setting  up,  up  gradation  and  running  of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV) upto class 12, setting up of residential schools/hostel named Netaji  Subhas  Chandra  Bose  Avasiya  Vidyalayas,  transport  allowance,  undertaking  enrolment  drives, seasonal  hostels/residential  camps,  provision  of  vocational  education  and  ICT  facilities  in  schools, providing  free  text  books  and  free  uniform,  transport/escort  facility,  etc,  financial  assistance  is  also provided for aids and appliances for children with special needs.

- (c):  Under  Samagra  Shiksha  financial  assistances  provided  to  States/UTs.  For  the  year  2024-25  central release till now under Samagra Shiksha is Rs. 2072922.71 lakh.
- (d)  and  (e):  The  major  reasons  for  drop-out  of  school  children  are  to  supplement  household  income,  to attend domestic chores, not interested in studies, unable to cope up with studies, child suffering with some disability,  poor  health,  education  not  considered  necessary  by  the  parents,  preparation  of  competitive examination,  marriage  etc.  Further,  Central  Government  assist  States  and  UTs  through  the  Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha. to reduce dropout.

Also,  based  on  the  recommendations  of  National  Education  Policy  2020  (NEP  2020),  w.e.f 2022-23  UDISE+  has  been  revitalized,  to  capture  individual  student  wise  data  and  created  student's registry. There has been a complete change in the manner of collection of data from 2022-23 onwards from gross  enrolment  data  to  individual  student  data.  It  makes  comparison  of  data  from  previous  years statistically different/inchoate.

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