New Delhi: Enrolment in government schools across the country in 2023-24 dipped by 87.14 lakh as compared to the previous academic year, Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The Minister added that there was no need to read too much into the drop in figures as there has been a complete change in the manner of collection of data from 2022-23, making comparison of data from previous years ‘statistically different/inchoate’.

Replying to a question from MPs Sougata Ray and Kishori Lal regarding ‘Drop In enrolment in government schools, Pradhan also highlighted the schemes initiated to reduce the dropout rate. The Minister said financial assistance provided to States/UTs for the year 2024-25, central release under Samagra Shiksha stood at Rs 34,45,820.90 lakh. Pradhan claimed that it may not be justified to compare dropout rate data from previous years, as there has been a complete change in the manner of collection of data from 2022-23 onwards, from gross enrolment data to individual student data.

“It makes comparison of data from previous years statistically different/inchoate,” said the Minister in his reply, adding that based on the recommendations of National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020), with effect from 2022-23 the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) system has been revitalised, to capture individual student wise data and created student’s registry. He said the UDISE+ system, to records data on indicators of school education provided by all the States and Union Territories, has been developed by the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education.