While school dropout rates have reduced as compared to 2017, the pandemic saw children in rural areas have moved out of private to government schools in all age groups, the Economic Survey 2021-22 noted.
The policy-makers had to rely on secondary data, the Economic Survey 2021-22 noted, since the data from Ministry of Education are only available up to 2019-20.
Key factors
Quoting the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021, the Economic Survey 2021-22, said, the report found that during pandemic, children in rural areas have moved out of private to government schools in all age groups. The possible reasons suggested for the shift include “shut down of low-cost private schools”, financial distress of parents, free facilities in government schools, and families migrating back to villages. Disproportionately high fee in private schools could also be stimulating this shift.
“The impact of pandemic on enrolment and dropout rates during pandemic years, 2020 and 2021, could not be assessed through comprehensive official data. Thus, policy makers have taken into account alternate sources,” it said.
The general enrollment in “primary – enrollment in class 1 to 5 as a percentage of population in age 6 to 10 years — for girls as well as boys in 2019-20, it also added.
If the trend – of shift from private to government schools – holds, then public schools need to be equipped with additional support, in terms of teacher-pupil ratio, classroom space, and teaching/ learning materials, to absorb students migrating from private schools and from urban to rural areas, said the Survey.
In July 2020, government has issued guidelines for main streaming of children of migrant labourers, allowing their admissions into schools without asking for any documents other than identity.
Enrollment in age cohort of 15-16 years continued to improve as number of not enrolled children in this age group declined from 12.1 percent in 2018 to 6.6 percent in 2021, it said quoting the ASER report.
The ASER (Rural) report – which the Economic Survey 2021-22 used — also found that during pandemic, children (age 6-14 years) ‘not currently enrolled in schools’ increased from 2.5 per cent in 2018 to 4.6 percent in 2021.
Enrolment decline
The enrolment decline was relatively large among 7-10 year-old ages, as decline of enrolment for younger boys was higher than girls. The drop in enrolment happened in 2020, although it has remained stable in 2021.
“It is difficult to gauge the real time impact of repeated lockdowns on education sector because the latest available comprehensive official data dates back to 2019-20. This provides the longer time pre-Covid trends but does not tell us how the trend may have been impacted by COVID-19 induced restrictions,” the Survey said.
“Year 2019-20 saw decline in dropout rates at primary, upper-primary, and secondary levels. In 2019-20, school dropout rate at primary level declined to 1.45 per cent from 4.45 per cent in 2018-19. The decline is for both girls and boys. The decline has also reversed the trends of increasing dropout rates during previous two years: 2017-18 & 2018-19,” it added.