More children studying in Punjab’s private schools than govt, finds latest U-DISE report

Of the total 27404 schools in Punjab, 19,242 are government-run schools and private unaided are only 7,704.

However, according to the U-DISE report 2022-23, there were more enrolments in government schools than private ones. Of the total 59.15 lakh enrolments in 2022-23 report, at least 29.02 lakh were studying in government schools, and 28.23 lakh were in private.

The reports for both 2022-23 and 2023-24 have been released by the ministry, recently.

The class-wise data for enrollments show that while private schools in Punjab have over 5 lakh students studying in pre-primary section, the number stands at 3.67 lakh for government schools. In primary (1 to 5), private schools have higher enrolments (11.22 lakh) compared to 10.40 lakh in government schools, and so does in upper-primary (6 to 8). However, in secondary and senior secondary, government schools have more students in Punjab.

Enrolments in Punjab schools: Pre-primary to Class 12

When it comes to pre-primary admissions in government schools only, Punjab is among the top states with highest enrolments. Only Gujarat (514446) and West Bengal (988637) have higher enrolments in pre-primary of government schools than Punjab.

Punjab was the first state to introduce pre-primary in government schools in 2017.

Enrolments in Punjab government schools have decreased even as the overall enrolment in the state has increased.

Nationally, the total enrolments have reduced from 25.17 crore as per 2022-23 report to 24.80 crore in 2023-24. In Punjab, the total enrolments stood at 59.15 lakh in the 2022-23 report, which increased to 59.88 lakh in 2023-24.

At national-level, more students are enrolled in government schools than private ones. Of the total 24.80 crore children in schools of India, 12.74 crore are in government schools and 9 crore are in private unaided schools as per the latest report.

When it comes to number of teachers, then also the figures are higher for private schools than government schools in Punjab, indicating that private schools have better Pupil Teacher Ratio. Of the total 2.73 lakh teachers in the state, as per the latest report, the government schools have 1.26 lakh, while the private schools have 1.42 lakh.

The education ministry has also clarified that the overall reduction in enrolment nationally does not necessarily mean that more kids are now out of school. Rather, according to the officials, the latest data is “more authentic” as it has been collected “student-wise”, which means that details of each student — their name, address, parents’ name, Aadhaar details — is being entered into the UDISE+ system.

Earlier schools at their own level used to enter the data, leading to bogus or inflated entries in order to draw government benefits such as uniforms, books, midday meal funds etc. However, this was changed from 2022-23 and now data is collected student-wise, not school-wise. So while the 2022-23 data is “not strictly comparable with previous reports on various educational indicators”, “2022-23 and 203-24 are comparable”, says the latest report.

Total class-wise enrolment 2023-24

According to 2023-24 report, at least 86.88% students in Punjab have provided their Aadhar card numbers, higher than the national average of 79.4% but lower than neighbouring state Haryana 95.05% Chandigarh 94.78% and Himachal Pradesh 92.67%.

Punjab has done well in other parameters, and majority schools in the state have access to basic facilities such as libraries, reading corners, toilets, computers, drinking water, kitchen gardens etc. However, there are still 2092 single teacher schools in the state with an enrollment of 69532 children. There are 15 schools in Punjab with zero enrolment.

“Over 70k ghost students eliminated from govt schools,” says ministers 

Speaking to The Indian Express, Punjab education minister Harjot Singh Bains said the actual enrollment in government schools has reduced by around 70,000 after “ghost students” were removed from the system.

“We ran a special drive to identify bogus admissions and nearly 70,000 students were found missing. Their names existed in records but they never attended school. Teachers did not strike off their names fearing that it will hit the overall numbers but we took a tough call, got such bogus admissions verified on ground and they were removed from the system. Such bogus admissions also led to scams such as corruption in midday meal funds etc,” Bains said, adding, “I believe there must be 15,000-20,000 bogus admissions still reflecting in our government schools record. We are soon introducing daily online attendance to ensure complete elimination of ghost students.”

The minister further said that the enrolments in private schools of Punjab have actually declined gradually if the numbers from past five years were analysed.

“In 2019-20, the enrollment in private schools of Punjab stood at 33.45 lakh which reduced to 32.35 lakh in 2020-21 and 28.64 lakh in 2021-22. As per the latest report, it stands at 29.81 lakh in 2023-24. The trend of parents shifting their children from private to government schools had started during Covid but apparently some are now shifting to private schools. Many of those were dummy admissions as these students never actually went to a government school. There were only online classes and no exams happened for two years. Also, many parents had admitted their children in private coaching institutes during Covid who are now going back to schools. It will still take more than a year for Covid situation to normalise,” the minister said.