Ministry of Education released a detailed report on Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2021-22 on school education of India on Nov 3, with additional data on important indicators viz., digital library, peer learning, hard spot identification, number of books available in school library, etc.
As per the report, in 2021-22 total students enrolled in school education from primary to higher secondary stood at 25.57 crore as compare to 25.38 crore enrolment in 2020-21, registering an increase of 19.36 lakh enrolments (includes more 8 lakh girls). Notably, GER in higher secondary has made significant improvement from 53.8% in 2021-21 to 57.6% in 2021-22.
Total number of Scheduled caste enrolment increased to 4.82 Crore in 2021-22 as compared to 4.78 Crore in 2020-21. Similarly, total Scheduled Tribe enrolment increased to 2.51 crore in 2021-22 from 2.49 crore in 2020-21. Total other backward students also increased to 11.48 crore in 2021-22 from 11.35 crore in 2020-21. Total enrolment of Children with Special Needs (CWSN) in 2021-22 stands at 22.67 lakh as compared to 21.91 lakh in 2020-21 showing an improvement of 3.45% over 2020-21.
In 2021-22 over 12.29 crore girls are enrolled in primary to higher secondary showing an increase of 8.19 lakh compare to the enrolment of girls in 2020-21. The Gender Parity Index (GPI) of GER shows the representation of females in school education is in line with representation of girls in population of corresponding age group. The GPI value at all level of school education are one or more implying more participation of girls in the school education.
Total number of schools in 2021-22 stood at 14.89 lakhs as compared to 15.09 lakhs in 2020-21. The decline in total schools is mainly due to closure of private and other management schools and grouping/ clustering of schools by various States.
There are 95.07 lakh teachers who are engaged in school education during 2021-22 out of which more than 51% are female teachers. Further, in 2021-22, the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) stood at 26 for primary, 19 for upper primary, 18 for secondary and 27 for higher secondary, showing an improvement since 2018-19. The PTR for primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary was 28, 19, 21, and 30 respectively during 2018-19.
School Infrastructure: Impact of Samagra Shiksha scheme:
The availability of basic infrastructure facilities in schools as on 2021-22 are as follows:
- Electricity connection: 89.3%
- Drinking water: 98.2%
- Girls toilet: 97.5%
- CWSN toilet: 27%
- Handwash facility: 93.6%
- Playground: 77%
- Ramp with Handrail for CWSN: 49.7%
- Library/ Reading room/ Reading corner: 87.3%
Sustainable Environment Initiatives for School
- Kitchen Garden: 27.7%
- Rain Water Harvesting: 21%
