News Brief
ASER 2021 Survey: Big Increase In Enrolment In Government Schools Thanks To Covid-19 Induced Financial Stress
- The enrolment in private schools has decreased from 32.5 per cent in 2018 to 24.4 per cent in 2021 among the children in age group six to 14 years.
- The proportion of children in government schools has jumped from 64.3 per cent in 2018 to 70.3 per cent in 2021.
Schoolchildren.
The recently-released Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a survey conducted this year in 25 states and three Union Territories covering a total of 76,706 households and 75,234 children in the age group of 5-16 years, has confirmed the concerns that experts have been raising since the Covid-19 pandemic begun.
As the table above shows, there were only 2.5 per cent children who were not enrolled in schools in 2018. This has increased to 4.5 per cent now.
As far as enrolment shift to government schools from private ones is concerned, it’s visible among both genders and across all grades with the biggest shift seen among boys in the lowest grades. This shows how big an impact Covid-19 has had on the education sector.
Among states, the biggest increase in government school enrolment is seen in Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. With the exception of Telangana, all southern states have witnessed an increase of more than eight percentage points in government school enrolment.
These findings from the household survey were confirmed by the ASER’s school survey of teachers or head teachers from 7,299 government schools offering primary grades. They cited Covid-induced financial distress, free facilities provided by government schools and classes not being held in private schools (in this order) as three biggest reasons for this shift followed by migration.
