New Delhi: School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic strain have led to fears that more children will drop out. However, a survey report that has just been released suggests that this is not the case.
The Annual Education Report (ASER) survey 2022, released by non-profit organization Pratham, revealed on Wednesday that the opposite has happened. The proportion of children enrolled in schools has decreased from 2018 to 2022.
It also says that the proportion of children transferring from private to government schools has increased during the same period.
“Fear was expressed that children might drop out of school due to economic stress but this did not happen. Instead, the already low proportion of children aged 6-14 who were not enrolled declined from 2.8 percent to 1.6 percent over four years.
It states that the proportion of children currently enrolled in school is the lowest since the Right to Education (RTE) Act came into force influence in 2010.
To put things in perspective, the report says that the proportion of children out of school was 2.8 per cent in 2018, but increased to 4.6 per cent between 2018 and 2020. concentrated in the youngest age group of 6-10 years, and can be explained by the fact that many children (in the age group of 6 to 7) were waiting to take admission when schools reopened,” it tells.
It further states that the number of unenrolled children is set to come down again in 2022. And this is the lowest we have seen in a decade since the RTE Act came into effect,” the report said.
read this also, ‘Can’t Let Kids Go astray’- Selfless Bhopal Women Teaching Slum Kids During Lockdown
School enrollment went up across all age groups
Final ASER Rural Area Survey operated It shows that the all-India enrollment figure for the 6-14 age group was 97.2 per cent in 2018 pre-pandemic, which has now gone up to 98.4 per cent in 2022.
“This evidence indicates that at least as far as school enrollment is concerned, pandemic-induced school closures have not affected either girls or boys over the age of ten or even fourteen Dropout did not occur for older people. Across all ages, for both boys and girls, school enrollment actually increased from 2018 to 2022,” it reads.
The report notes that the rising enrollment trend “can be viewed as both a plus and a minus.”
“Higher and steadily increasing enrollment means that potentially more students could benefit from schooling for a longer and sustained period. Completing a full eight-year cycle of schooling for each cohort of 25 million students is India’s No small feat in a country of its size and diversity.
“On the other hand, more and more students are going through the middle school pipeline, also attending secondary schools, increasing competition for post-secondary opportunities,” the report said.
The report states that the expansion of secondary schools has not kept up with the large numbers that they can receive from middle school students. Board exams have stopped the students from moving to the next stage.
“Intensified exam stress and anxiety (sometimes ending in suicide), grade inflation on high school leaving exams, difficulties gaining admission to college, lack of suitable jobs for school dropouts are all results in high enrollment and completion rates, ” This indicates.
In an article written for the report, Rukmini Banerjee, the first Chief Executive Officer, also points to the fact that there is a trend of increasing overall enrollment in schools as well as increasing enrollment in government schools.
For the country as a whole (all India rural), the percentage of children aged 11 to 14 who are enrolled in government schools is expected to increase from 65 per cent in 2018 to 71.7 per cent in 2022, she says.
She says that the increase in enrollment in government schools can be attributed to several possible factors, one of them being the financial status of the family.
“If family income decreases or becomes more uncertain, it is likely that parents may not be able to afford private school fees. Therefore, their children may have to be taken out of private schools and put into government schools. Where there is a possibility, at least till the end of the compulsory stage, education is free (up to class 8).
“The second reason may be linked to the fact that in rural areas, most private schools are of the low cost or budget variety,” she adds.
(Edited by Geetalakshmi Ramanathan)
read this also, Fewer children enrolled at pre-primary, Class 1 levels during pandemic, shows government data