Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2021

The enrolment of children aged 6-14 in private schools decreased from 32.5 per cent in 2018 to 24.4 per cent in 2021. Enrolment among children of the same age in government schools increased from 64.3 to 70.3 per cent in this period. The report posits the reasons for this shift to be the shutting down of affordable private schools, the return of migrants to their home states, and economic distress.

The report cites the proportion of children of 6-14 years not enrolled in school to be 4.6 per cent. Among children aged 15-16 years – the age group considered most likely to drop out of schools – the rate of children not currently enrolled in schools declined from 9.9 per cent in 2020 to 6.6 per cent in 2021.

The number of girls enrolled in government schools went from 70 to 71.9 per cent between 2018 and 2021. While the enrolment of girls in government schools has consistently been greater than that of boys, this gender gap narrowed during the pandemic. The number of boys enrolled in government schools increased from 62.8 per cent in 2018 to 72 per cent in 2021.

There has been a rise in the number of children taking private tuitions. This rate went from 28.6 per cent in 2018, to 32.5 per cent in 2019 and 39.2 per cent in 2021. About 41.1 per cent of students in Class 9 and above take paid tuition classes.

Among children whose parents have studied up to Class 5, there has been a 12.6 per cent increase in the proportion of those who take tuitions. This rise is relatively lower – 7.2 per cent – among children with parents who have completed their education up to at least Class 9.

In 2018, 29.6 per cent of families with children enrolled in government schools had at least one smartphone. This number increased to 56.4 per cent in 2020 and 63.7 per cent in 2021. But only 27 per cent of children who belonged to families owning a smartphone could access it anytime for studying.

A child's access to smartphones in households was found to be proportional to the education level of their parents – with an increase in the education level, the accessibility to smartphones was higher. Over 80 per cent of children whose parents had studied till at least Class 9 had a smartphone at home, compared to the 50 per cent whose parents had passed Class 5 or less. 

As per the report, 74.9 per cent of children received learning support from parents and elder siblings in 2020, which declined to 66.6 per cent in 2021.

Between 2020 and 2021, the proportion of children studying in Class 1-2 who received learning support from family declined from 81.5 per cent to 74.3 per cent. This rate was reported to be 68.3 per cent in 2020 and 56.7 per cent in 2021 for children studying in Class 9 and above.

In 2021, 91.9 per cent of children overall – 92.3 per cent of those enrolled in government schools and 90.7 per cent in private schools – had access to textbooks for their current grades. This rate was 80.5 per cent in 2020.

Among children whose schools had not reopened as of September 2021, the availability of study materials – which included worksheets, online or pre-recorded classes, and videos sent through phones or received in person – increased from 35.6 per cent in 2020 to 39.8 per cent in 2021.

Out of the 7,299 government schools surveyed, 3,958 had fully reopened, 914 had partially reopened and 2,427 had not opened as of September 2021.

Among the schools which had reopened, 93.5 per cent had received a government notification to implement safety measures during the reopening process. Roughly 65.4 per cent of the respondent schools report that they had been inspected for Covid-19 prevention measures. As high as 92.8 per cent of the reopened schools had water, 91.7 per cent had soap, 95.1 per cent had sanitisers, 31.4 per cent had temperature guns, 72.7 per cent had extra masks and 4.3 per cent had quarantine rooms.

Focus and factoids by Gayatri Ailani.