Provide additional support to Govt system to manage reverse migration from private school: Economic Survey – Rashtra News : Rashtra News
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The survey however could not throw light on the real time impact of repeated lockdowns on the education sector because of lack of latest available comprehensive official data as it banked on various smaller surveys by the Government and by citizen-led non-government agencies. The Survey, while acknowledging the academic disruption due to the pandemic, found that despite the Covid-19 situation “enrolment in the age cohort of 15-16 years continued to improve as the number of not enrolled children in this age group declined from 12.1% in 2018 to 6.6% in 2021.” However, children (age 6-14 years) is the ‘not currently enrolled in schools’ category increased from 2.5% in 2018 to 4.6% in 2021.
If the reverse migration from private schools continues, the survey called for enhanced support to the government run school system like additional support “in terms of teacher-pupil ratio, classroom space, and teaching/ learning materials, to absorb students migrating from private schools and from urban to rural areas.”
Pointing out that access to education, school drop outs, learning gaps especially for children from marginalized communities have always remained major challenges in education, the academic disruption due to the pandemic and subsequent to online learning becoming the safe and prominent mode of learning, it aggravated the existing digital divide and thus access to education. It cited a non-governmental report – “Although, the availability of smartphones has increased from 36.5% in 2018 to 67.6% in 2021, students in lower grade found it difficult to do online activities compared to higher-grade students. Non-availability of smartphones, non-availability of phones for children to use, and network or connectivity issues were the challenges faced by children.”
However, the Survey stated that although there is no Government data to corroborate, “steps have been taken by the Government to minimise the adverse impact of the pandemic on the education system to address the concerns raised through private studies undertaken during the pandemic period. Almost all enrolled children have textbooks for their current grade (91.9 percent). This proportion has increased over the last year, for children enrolled in both government and private schools. Also, 46.4% children in reopened schools received learning materials/ activities as compared to 39.8% children whose schools had not reopened,” as it cited initiatives PM e-VIDYA, National Digital Education Architecture and Vidyanjali towards mitigating learning loss and continuity of education.
As a forward looking step, the Survey stated that National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 aims to pave the way for transformational reforms in school and higher education systems to provide quality education to all students with special focus on the marginalised, disadvantaged and underrepresented groups.
Based on comprehensive official data dating back to 2019-20, the Survey highlighted significant improvement in basic facilities in schools during the period 2012-13 to 2019-20, with medical check-up recording 82.3% as against 61.1%. In the same period schools having girl’s toilets improved from 88.7% to 96.9%. Internet facility, though significantly low, still recorded growth from 6.2% to 22.3%.
School infrastructure – both in terms of number of recognized schools and colleges and basic facilities in schools – and teachers’ availability reflected in Pupil Teacher Ratio, showed an improvement in 2019-20 over earlier years. Gross enrolment ratio in higher education recorded at 27.1% in 2019-20, was slightly higher from 26.3% in 2018-19.
The Survey pointed out that expenditure on education during the pandemic has increased by 20% as against nearly 73% in the health sector in 2021-22 (BE) when compared to 2019-20.
The combined Centre and States expenditure in education increased from 3.54 lakh crore in 2014-15 to 6.97 lakh crore in 2021-22 (BE). As a percentage of GDP for education it increased from 2.8% in 2014-15 to 3.1% in 2020-21. However, as a percentage to total expenditure on social services, for education it has decreased from 10.8% to 9.7% in this period.
Priority to drinking water and sanitation in schools under the Jal Jeevan Mission, Swatchh Bharat Mission as well as under Samagra Sikhsha Scheme have been instrumental in providing required resources and creating assets in schools, notes the Survey. As on January 19, 2022, under Jal Jeevan Mission
8,39,443 schools were provided tap water supply. Further, availability of teachers has improved at all levels continuously from 2012-13 to 2019-20.
The Survey further added that the year 2019-20 saw an improvement in Gross
Enrolment Ratio (GER) at all levels and improvement in gender parity. In 2019-20, 26.45 crore children were enrolled in schools. This has helped to reverse the declining trend of GER between 2016-17 and 2018-19. During the year schools enrolled about 42 lakh additional children out of which 26 lakhs were in primary to higher secondary levels and 16 lakhs were in pre-primary as per Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISF+).
Gross enrolment ratio in higher education recorded at 27.1% in 2019-20, slightly higher from 26.3% in 2018-19. According to the Survey the Government has taken multiple initiatives at revolutionizing the higher education ecosystem such as amendment to National Apprenticeship Training Scheme, Academic Bank of Credit, e PGPathshala, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan and scholarship for weaker sections.
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( News Source :Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Rashtra News staff and is published from a timesofindia.indiatimes.com feed.)
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