News Survey: Improved gender equality, declining school dropout rates

The Economic Survey for 2022–23 noted that the GER for girls is higher than that for males in similar age groups in primary and upper-primary levels.

According to the Economic Survey for 2022–23, which was presented to Parliament on Tuesday, there has been a sustained decrease in the school dropout rate and an increase in enrollment in both secondary and higher education.

According to the survey, which was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in     the union budget, gender parity also improved this fiscal year.

“The Gross Enrolment Ratios (GER) in the primary-enrollment in Classes 1 to 5 as a percentage of the population in age six to 10 years – for girls, as well as boys, has improved throughout the financial year (FY),” the statement reads.

It said that “the GER in upper-primary (enrolment in class 6 to 8 as a per cent of the population in age 11–13 years), which was stable between FY-17 and FY-19, increased in FY-22.” This recovery has “reversed the downward trends between FY-17 and FY-19,” it noted.

The Economic Survey for 2022–23 noted that the GER for girls is higher than that for males in similar age groups in primary and upper-primary levels.

According to the statement, “In FY-22, school enrollment stood at 26.5 crore children with 19.4 lakh extra students enrolling in primary to higher-secondary levels.”

According to the report, there are 22.7 lakh children with special needs (CWSN) overall in FY-22, up from 21.9 lakh in FY-21, or a 3.3% rise.

“With the exception of pre-primary, enrollment rose at all levels—primary, upper-primary, secondary, and higher secondary. Enrollment decreased from 1.1 crore in FY-21 to one crore in FY-22 at the pre-primary level, the report stated.

About one crore children were enrolled in pre-primary school, 12.2 crore in primary, 6.7 crore in upper primary, 3.9 crore in secondary, and 2.9 crore in higher secondary during the course of the year, it stated.

Boys’ and girls’ school dropout rates across all grade levels have steadily decreased in recent years.

According to the survey, the availability of teachers, as determined by the pupil-teacher ratio, has continually increased at all levels from FY-13 to FY-22. This statistic is negatively connected to improvements in educational quality.

According to the report, the improvement occurred between FY-13 and FY-22, going 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.

According to the survey, more schools, more teachers who are available, and better school facilities should increase enrollment and lower dropout rates.

“The overall number of students enrolled in higher education climbed from 3.9 million in FY20 to about 4.1 million in FY21. Since FY-15, enrollment has increased by almost 72 lakh (21 per cent). According to the report, there are now two crore women enrolled, up from 1.9 crore in FY-20.

“There are 45.7 lakh students enrolled in remote learning (20.9 lakh of whom are female), up about 7% from FY-20 and 20% from FY-15. According to 2011 population forecasts (updated), the GER in higher education was 27.3 percent in FY-21, up from 25.6 percent in FY-20, it said.

According to the poll, the GER for men climbed from 24.8 in FY-20 to 26.7 in FY-21, while the GER for women improved from 26.4 to 27.9 over the same time period.