Enrolment Drop in Government Schools and PM-POSHAN
Why in News?
- Concerning trend of declining student enrolment in government schools across India and examines the implications for the PM-POSHAN scheme.
Important Key Points:
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Significant Decline in Enrolment: The Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+) report for 2023-24 indicates a drop in total school enrolment from 26.36 crore (2018-2022 average) to 24.8 crore, marking a decrease of 1.55 crore students. Government schools experienced a 5.59% decline, while private schools saw a 3.67% reduction.
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State-wise Impact: Uttar Pradesh reported the highest drop with 21.83 lakh fewer students, followed by Bihar (6.14 lakh), Rajasthan (5.63 lakh), and West Bengal (4.01 lakh).
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Gender Disparity: Enrolment of boys declined by 6.04%, and girls by 5.76%, compared to the 2018-19 to 2021-22 average.
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Concerns Raised by MoE: The Ministry of Education has expressed concern over the steep drop in enrolment at primary and upper-primary levels across 23 states and UTs, prompting requests for probes and remedial action plans from the affected states.
