Special Correspondent
Panaji
Admitting that there is a drop in enrolment of students in schools across the country, Union Ministry of Education has said that in Goa there has been such a drop of 6,789 students over the last five years.
“The total enrolment of students in Goan schools during the academic year 2018-19 was 3,11,524, while it came down to 3,04,735 in the academic year 2023-24,” it stated.
The state has observed a decline in school enrolment, particularly impacting primary schools, potentially linked to the exodus of migrant families during the pandemic, and a declining birth rate.
In Goa, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for students from pre-primary to second grade was 72% in 2024, with female enrolment at 118%, slightly higher than male enrolment at 112.9%.
The state government aims for a 50% GER in higher education by 2035, aligning with the National Education Policy 2020. In 2021, Goa’s GER in higher education stood at 33.8 %.
Union Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha during the ongoing budget session of the Parliament that there are some major reasons for the fall in enrolment.
“The major reasons for drop-out of school children are to supplement household income, to attend domestic chores, not interested in studies, unable to cope up with studies, child suffering with some disability, poor health, education not considered necessary by parents, preparation of competitive examination, marriage etc,” Chaudhary said.
“However, the central government assists states and Union territories through the centrally sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha in order to reduce dropout,” Chaudhury said, maintaining that “also, based on the recommendations of National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020), with effect from the academic year 2022-23, the Unified District Information System + (UDISE+) has been revitalised to capture individual student-wise data and created student’s registry.”
“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,” he said, pointing out, “It makes comparison of data from previous years, statistically different/ inchoate.”
UDISE+ system records data on indicators of school education provided by all the states and Union territories. As per UDISE+, the number of students recorded for the year 2022-23 and 2023-24 is 25,17,91,722 and 24,80,45,828, respectively.
In Goa, a concerning trend of declining school enrolment, particularly in government primary schools, has led to closures and mergers of many of these schools, with 57% of schools having less than five students and 42 having zero enrolment.
