Enrolments dropped by 16% in recognised Madrasas in 2023-24 compared to 2018-19
The number of students enrolled in Indian schools in 2023-24 declined by 1.22 crore compared with 2018-19, show data. Officials argue that Aadhaar numbers and unique student IDs have been used to identify beneficiaries of educational schemes and, in the process, duplicate entries and ghost entries have been weeded out.
However, Unified District Information System For Education Plus (UDISE) data show that this new method of data collection has had a disproportionate impact on Madrasas — both recognised and unrecognised — and other unrecognised schools. Unrecognised schools don’t have a license to function and don’t meet many of the criteria set by the government in terms of infrastructure, class size, etc.
There was a sharp drop in school enrolments among recognised Madrasa schools even as the number of recognised Madrasas and the number of teachers working in them increased.
Chart 1 shows the absolute number of students enrolled in government, government-aided, private, and other schools in 2018-19 and 2023-24.
Other schools include unrecognised schools and Madrasas (recognised and unrecognised). Student enrolments dropped from 13.1 crore to 12.7 crore in government schools, 2.7 crore to 2.5 crore in government-aided schools, 9.2 crore to 9 crore in private schools, and 90 lakh to 49 lakh in other schools.
Chart 2 shows the absolute drop in the number of students enrolled in 2023-24 compared with 2018-19 across school types.
Enrolments dropped by 36 lakh in government schools, 24 lakh in government-aided schools, 21 lakh in private schools, and more than 40 lakh in other schools.
When read together, Charts 1 and 2 show that the number of students in other schools only formed around 2% to 4% of the total enrolments in both the years (Chart 1), but formed over 33% of the decline in total enrolments (Chart 2).
Calculating the decline in enrolments in percentage terms brings out the disparity further. Chart 3 shows the percentage drop in student enrolments in 2023-24 compared with 2018-19 across school types.
Enrolments declined by 2.8% in government schools, 8.7% in government-aided schools, 2.3% in private schools and 44.8% in other schools.
Chart 4 shows a break-up of student enrolments in other schools — separately for recognised Madrasas, unrecognised Madrasas, and other unrecognised schools — for 2023-24 and 2018-19.
Enrolments dropped from 30 lakh to 25 lakh (16% decline) in recognised Madrasas, 6.1 lakh to 78,283 (87% decline) in unrecognised Madrasas, and 53 lakh to 23.5 lakh (56% decline) in other unrecognised schools.
In unrecognised Madrasas and other unrecognised schools, the number of schools and teachers has sharply reduced, which also explains the drop in students in them. However, the number of recognised Madrasa schools have increased by 7%, and the number of teachers in those schools have risen by 13% even though the student share has decreased by 16%.
Chart 5 | The chart shows the number of “other” schools in 2023-24 compared with 2018-19
Chart 6 | The chart shows the number of teachers working in “other” schools in 2023-24 compared with 2018-19
So, there has been a disproportionate decrease in enrolments in Madrasas and unrecognised schools. Is this because duplicate entries and ghost entries were removed or was there an actual drop in students? It is important to explore this further especially since recognised Madrasas and the number of teachers working in them has increased despite a drop in student enrolments.
Source: The data for the charts were sourced from UDISE+ reports 2018-19 and 2023-24
Published – January 08, 2025 07:00 am IST