The Economic Survey 2022-2023 has recorded there has been a steady decline in the school dropout rate and increase in enrollment both in school and higher education and also gender parity has improved.
"The Gross Enrolment Ratios (GER) in the primary-enrolment in Class 1 to 5 as a percentage of the population in age six to 10 years – for girls as well as boys has improved during the financial year (FY),” said the economic survey, tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
This improvement has "reversed the declining trends between FY-17 and FY-19", it stated, adding that "the GER in upper-primary (enrolment in class 6 to 8 as a percent of the population in age 11-13 years), which was stagnant between FY-17 and FY-19, improved in FY-22".
In corresponding age groups in primary and upper-primary levels, the GER for girls is better than that of boys, the Economic Survey for 2022-23 stated. "In FY-22, school enrolment stood at 26.5 crore children with 19.4 lakh additional children enrolled in primary to higher-secondary levels," it said.
The survey noted that the total enrolment of Children with Special Needs (CWSN) in FY-22 stands at 22.7 lakh as compared to 21.9 lakh in FY-21, an increase of 3.3 per cent. "The enrolments increased across all levels -- primary, upper-primary, secondary, and higher-secondary, except for the pre-primary level. At the pre-primary level, enrolment reduced from 1.1 crore in FY-21 to one crore in FY-22," it said.
"During the year, about one crore children were enrolled in pre-primary, 12.2 crore in primary, 6.7 crore in upper primary, 3.9 crore in secondary and 2.9 crore in higher secondary," it said. School dropout rates, for both boys and girls, at all levels have witnessed a steady decline in recent years. The availability of teachers, measured by pupil-teacher ratio, an indicator which is inversely related to improvement in quality of education, has improved at all levels continuously from FY-13 to FY-22, the survey said.
From FY-13 to FY-22, it improved from 34.0 to 26.2 at the primary level, 23 to 19.6 at the upper-primary level, 30.0 to 17.6 at the secondary level and 39.0 to 27.1 at the higher-secondary level, it said.
The survey stated that the improvement in the number of schools, teachers' availability and facilities in schools is expected to help improve enrolment and reduce dropout.