UDISE+ 2024-25: Sharp drop in SC, ST, OBC enrolment; government schools lose 5.9 lakh students

UDISE Plus 2024-25: While the UDISE+ 2024-25 data shows an 11 lakh drop in school enrolment, the sharpest drop is among students from the historically-marginalised Scheduled Castes (SC). The SC enrolment alone dropped by over 8 lakh. For Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC), the drops are of 2 lakh and 3 lakh, respectively.

The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE full form) data shows that the enrolment in government schools has dropped by over 5.9 lakh in 2024-25, whereas private-unaided schools have gained 5.8 lakh students.

The enrolment drop in government schools could be related to the total count of such schools falling by 4,338; the number of private schools has doubled by 8,475.

The number of girl students has risen by 32,925 while 11,46,073 fewer boys are now in school. However, boys still constitute 52% of school enrolment.

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UDISE+ Report: Decreasing enrolment

India’s school enrolment has slipped from 24.8 crore in 2023–24 to 24.69 crore in 2024-25. The year before that saw a whopping 37 lakh fall.

The education ministry has published two UDISE Plus reports – one on the existing structure and another as per the new structure introduced by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

The NEP structure includes four stages:

• Foundational: 3 years of pre-school to Class 2

• Preparatory: Classes 3 to 5

• Middle: Classes 6 to 8

• Secondary: Classes 9 to 12

Worryingly, the report suggests that the preparatory stage has seen the sharpest fall in enrolment, followed by the foundational stages. This implies a drop at the very start of the educational journey. The gross enrolment ratios at these levels – that is, the ratio of students enrolled to the total number of children in the appropriate age group for that level – shows that elementary education is still not universal.

The table below shows enrolment as per the new school structure. (In crores)

At the Foundational level, GER is a mere 41.4%.

The report, however, adds that foundational stage represented in the UDISE+ system does not yet capture the pre-primary enrolment of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) system run by the ministry of women and child welfare through the anganwadi centers and standalone preprimary education centers run by different kindergartens.

“It covers only the enrolment in preprimary classes of different categories of schools,” states the report.

Also, the push for formalising pre-school education by integrating it with the existing school structure is relatively new.

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Among the states, the highest GER at the foundational state is in Meghalaya and lowest in Bihar; at the preparatory stage, Meghalaya is again on top at the lowest is Madhya Pradesh.

However, at the middle and secondary stage, the highest GER is in Chandigarh and the lowest in Bihar.

UDISE+ 2024-2025: Enrolment and social categories

Enrolment has fallen across social categories, even though, as per the report, retention and dropout rates have improved.

Given below is the distribution of students registered on UDISE+ across categories:

• General: 27.1%

• SC: 17.8%

• ST: 9.9%

• OBC: 45.2%

Among minorities,

• 79.1% are Muslim

• 10.2% are Christian

• 7.3% are Sikh

• 2% are Buddhist

• 1.3% are Jain

• 0.1% Parsi

The table below shows enrolment across social categories.

Enrolment by category (in crore)

Like the overall trend, the GER for SC students at the foundational level has fallen from 40.4 in 2023-24 to 38.8 in 2024-25. At the preparatory stage, it’s down from 102.1 in 2023-24 to 99.8 in 2024-25.

On the brighter side, at the secondary stages, the GERs of both SC and ST communities have improved to 70.8 and 66.9, respectively. In 2023-24, the SC GER for this stage stood at 69.3; it was 63.0 for ST.

Punjab has the highest percentage of SC students enrolled (36.1%), Mizoram has ST (97.8%) and Tamil Nadu, OBC (70.7%).

UDISE+ Report: Dropout rates fall

The report showed a decrease in the dropout rates in 2024-25. The dropout rates over the two years are given below.

Dropout rates by stage

Despite some improvement, retention at the secondary level remains worryingly low at 47.2% in 2024–25.

While overall dropout rates may be improving, West Bengal’s at the secondary level is above 15%. The rate has increased from 2023-24, when it stood at 12.01%.

Other states and union territories with dropout rates between 12% and 15% include the following:

• Gujarat

• Madhya Pradesh

• Karnataka

• Chhattisgarh

• Assam

• Arunachal Pradesh

• Mizoram

• Jammu and Kashmir

For these states, dropout rates at the secondary stage was above 15% in 2023-24.

Meghalaya improved its dropout rate from 17.53% in 2023-24 to 11.10% in 2024-25. Interestingly, UDISE Plus Jharkhand data shows zero dropout rate at the secondary stage as per the report; in 2023-24, it was at 10.27%.

UDISE Plus Uttar Pradesh; school closures

There have been protests across the country over the government schools being closed down. The UDISE Plus data provides figures on the number of schools that have been closed in the last one year.

In 2024-25 the number of government schools has come down to 12,15,89,911, from 12,74,90,199. The large part of the cull is in state government schools. Even the number of government-aided schools has declined.

Count of schools by type

In a year's time, the number of recognised madrasas came down to 19,690 from 20,512 in 2023-24.

The various state governments have been ordering the shutting down of unrecognised madrasas, with Uttarakhand even passing a bill called Uttarakhand Minority Educational Institutions Bill.

Nearly every state and UT has seen a fall in the count of schools. However, the ones below showed an increase. These include very large and populous states such as UP and Maharashtra.

Growth in number of schools

Except for Uttar Pradesh, the increase in schools in all states represented in the table above has been due to growth in private schooling. The number of government schools has fallen everywhere except UP.

In UP, out of the 2.62 lakh schools in 2024-25, 1,37,172 are government; this figure was slightly smaller, at 1,37,102, in 2023-24.

The report highlights that in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, J&K, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya, the percentages of schools available are more than percentages of students enrolled, implying underutilisation of institutions.

“Whereas in states such as Punjab, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Bihar and Kerala, the percentage of available schools are significantly less as compared to enrolled students indicating more students per school,” the report added.