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Enrolment in schools rises 14% to 23 crore

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NEW DELHI: In a significant leg up to the government's literacy initiative, a national survey has revealed that almost 23 crore children are studying in 13 lakh schools across the country.

There were 228,994,454 students enrolled in different recognized schools of the country with a 13.67% growth in student's enrolment from Class I to XII. This is an increase from 20.30 crore students enrolled in 2002. Encouragingly, there is a 19.12 % increase in girl's enrolment.

However, one-fifth of the total primary schools in rural areas still do not have drinking water facility, three out of 10 are without usable urinal facilities and about half do not have playgrounds.

This is part of provisional data from the eighth All India Education Survey (AISES) conducted by NCERT covering the school education system with respect to access, enrolment, retention, teachers and availability of basic facilities. The survey indicates trends from 2002 to 2009.

Despite the overall growth in enrolment, there is cause for worry. A comparison of enrolment data from 2002 to 2009 for primary schools shows a drop in enrolment in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu. "The decline in enrolment indicates that students at the primary level are shifting from government to private schools," a NCERT official said. The decline in total enrolment between class I to XII, however, is less sharp.

The data confirms the disquieting fact that girl's education continues to be interrupted after primary school with the percentage of enrolment declining at the higher secondary school stage. While there is a maximum increase of 48.13% in girl's enrolment in primary schools, the figure dips to 42.56% in higher secondary schools. Similar trend is observed in percentage of girl's enrolment in schools in rural areas.

There was 26.77% increase in total number of schools in the country during 2002-09. Maximum growth rate was seen in upper primary schools (49.15%), followed by higher secondary schools (46.80%), secondary (28.95%) and primary (16.68%).

The survey captures more than 13 lakh (13,06,992) recognized schools across the country in each habitation, village and urban areas, out of which more than 84.14% are in rural areas.

There is also 30% increase in number of teachers in the country. The total growth of teachers in higher secondary school increased by 34% with a 50% increase in number of teachers at higher secondary schools in rural areas. Consequently, the pupil teacher ratio (PTR) has also improved since the last survey. PTR in primary schools has declined from 42:1 to 32:1.