India's education report card: Better score in enrolment; low rank in infra

Even though The Annual Status of Education Reports have consistently shown a decline in learning levels, India has achieved higher gross enrolment ratios. Data from the 2019-20 U-DISE report, recently released, indicates that more of India’s children are going beyond primary education. According to the report, enrolments in secondary (Class 9-10) and higher secondary (Class 11-12) have increased 16 per cent since 2012-13. (see chart 1).

The data also reflects that girls are catching up with boys. While 25 million girls were enrolled in secondary and higher secondary classes in 2012-13, enrolments increased to 31 million in 2019-20. Enrolments for boys, too, went up from 29 million to 33 million during this period (see chart 2).

Infrastructure has also improved. Handwashing facility was available only in a third of India’s schools in 2012-13; it’s now available in 90 per cent of schools. The ratio of boys’ toilets has gone up from 67.8 per cent to 95.9 per cent; and nearly every school will have a girls’ toilet soon (see chart 3).

However, most schools are still deficient in learning infrastructure; 17 per cent do not have electricity; and 16 per cent are without a library. 

The proportion of schools without a well-equipped library is even higher (see chart 4).

India has not done particularly well in terms of digitalisation either. Only two in five schools have a computer, and a fourth have internet (see chart 5).

In contrast, given the pandemic, the edtech market has been growing. Edtech start-ups received $2.1 billion in funding in 2020, much higher than the combined funding between 2016 and 2019. RBSA Advisors report indicates that funding for 2021 has already exceeded 2019 levels (see chart 6).

StatsGuru is a weekly feature. Every Monday, Business Standard guides you through the numbers you need to know to make sense of the headlines; U-DISE 2019-20 Report