ASER 2022: After temporary decline during pandemic years, school enrollment touches record high

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The pandemic had triggered alarm bells on school enrollment, with ASER 2020 and 2021 reports capturing a fall in the proportion of children in schools in the 6-14 age group. The out of school numbers rose from 2.8 per cent in 2018 to 4.6 per cent in 2020, a level at which it remained in 2021 as well.

ASER 2022, which covered seven lakh children across 616 districts and was conducted by 27,536 volunteers, shows that the proportion of out of school children is down to 1.6% – “almost half of what was observed in 2018 and the lowest we have seen in the decade since the Right to Education Act came into effect”.

This, said Director ASER Centre Wilima Wadwa, is a clear indication that the increase in out of school numbers during 2020-21 was a temporary phenomenon caused by uncertainty and possibly a lag in recording enrollments.

The ASER report also highlights another trend that found reflection in other government reports such as the Unified District Information System for Education Plus data which came out last year.

ASER 2022 states that for the country as a whole, the percentage of all children aged 11 to 14 who are enrolled in government schools has risen from 65 per cent in 2018 to 71.7 per cent in 2022.

“For boys, the shift to government schools has been from 61.6 per cent (2018) to 69.2 per cent (2022) and for girls, the proportion enrolled in government school grew from 68.4 per cent (2018) to 74.1 per cent (2022),” it notes.

According to the UDISE+ data for 2021-22, between 2020 and 2021, enrollment in government schools increased by 83.35 lakh while in private schools it dipped by 68.85 lakh. Banerji said this phenomenon can be attributed to several factors including uncertainty income and closure of budget private schools in rural areas.

“If family income goes down or becomes more uncertain, it is likely that parents may not be able to afford private school fees. Hence, they are likely to pull their children out of private schools and put them in government schools. Also, in rural areas, most private schools are of the low cost or budget variety, many of which had to shut down during COVID because it was not economically viable to retain the staff,” she said.