Latest news with #UDISE
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Centre asks Jharkhand, Bihar to act against unrecognised schools
The Centre has urged Jharkhand and Bihar to tackle the issue of unrecognised schools 'at the earliest.' The Ministry of Education (MoE) flagged the issue of a high number of unrecognised schools operating in Jharkhand and Bihar during the meeting of Project Approval Board (PAB), while discussing the Annual Work Plan and Budget 2025-26 for Samagra Shiksha scheme held in March and April earlier this year. The meetings were held under the chairmanship of Sanjay Kumar, Secretary (School Education and Literacy). An unrecognised school is a private institution run without appropriate licence from the government authority. For recognition, a private school needs to submit various documents, including details of school's infrastructure and facilities, information about teachers and their qualifications to the district authorities. This is followed by an inspection by the District Education Officer, who visits the school to see if preconditions are fulfilled. For instance, the private school is run by a registered society or a public trust, it must have sufficient financial resources to maintain operations and it must follow prescribed curriculum and have qualified teachers. According to the PAB minutes of the meetings, as per the Unified District Information System for Education plus, (UDISE+) Jharkhand has the highest number of unrecognised schools in the country — 5,879 schools with an enrolment of 8,37,897 students and 46,421 teachers. The minutes also pointed out that as per UDISE+, there are 4,915 unrecognised schools in Bihar with an enrolment of 7,75,704 students and 42,377 teachers. Right to Education Act In the minutes, the MoE pointed out to the States that Section 19 of the Right to Education (RTE) Act stipulates that those schools established before the commencement of the Act (in 2009) and not fulfilling the norms shall take steps to fulfil the norms within three years from the date of commencement of the Act. RTE norms include having appropriate school infrastructure and maintenance, a fixed teacher-student ratio, qualified teachers, 25% seats in class 1 of private schools reserved for economically disadvantaged children and recognition by government authorities after meeting specified norms and standards. The RTE Act also mandates that if such schools fail to fulfil the norms, the recognition shall be withdrawn and the school shall cease to function. The MoE has urged Jharkhand and Bihar to issue suitable instructions to the concerned authorities, 'to recognise these unrecognised schools or to take appropriate action as deemed fit at the earliest.' The RTE Act states that any person who continues to run a school after the recognition is withdrawn, shall be liable to a fine which may extend to ₹1 lakh and in case of continuing contraventions, to a fine of ₹10,000 for each day during which contravention continues.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Students moving away from govt schools, disturbing: Centre to states
Pointing to the 'disturbing trend' of students 'moving away from government schools', and the steady increase in private school enrolment in states, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Uttarakhand, the Ministry of Education has asked them to take steps to reverse the trend, official documents show. The enrolment of students came up in meetings that the Education Ministry held with states in March and April to discuss projects for 2025-26 under the Samagra Shiksha scheme. In 10 of the 30 states and Union Territories, minutes of meetings made public so far show, the Union ministry has raised the matter of increasing or higher enrolments in private schools, despite the presence of a higher number of government schools. Additionally, across eight of the 30 states and UTs, the ministry has pointed to decreasing enrolments in government and aided schools. The issue of decreasing enrolments in government schools was also raised in recent meetings that the Ministry had with the states on the PM-POSHAN or midday meal scheme. In Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Uttarakhand, for instance, the secretary of the Education Ministry's Department of School Education and Literacy 'expressed his concerns that in spite of spending a large amount of funds, students are moving away from government schools, which is a disturbing trend'. The minutes of the ministry's meeting with Andhra Pradesh refer to UDISE+ data from 2023-24 to state that out of the 61,373 schools in the state, around 73 per cent (45,000) are government schools, and around 25 per cent (15,232) are private. However, enrolment in government schools is around 46 per cent of the total, while those in private schools is a little more than 52 per cent, according to the minutes. 'Enrolment trend during 2021-22 to 2023-24 suggests that enrolment in unaided schools is steadily increasing,' the minutes state. In Telangana and Uttarakhand, the minutes state that enrolment during the 2018-19 to 2023-24 period suggests that 'except during 2021-22 (COVID-19)', unaided schools witnessed a steady increase. In Telangana, the minutes refer to UDISE+ 2023-24 data to point out that 70 per cent of the 42,901 schools in the state are of the government, but their enrolment accounts for only 38.11 per cent of the total, compared to 60.75 per cent in private schools. Similarly, in Uttarakhand, close to 72 per cent of the total number of schools are of the government. 'However, total enrolment in government schools is only 36.68 per cent as compared to 54.39 per cent enrolment in unaided schools,' the minutes read. In the case of Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Telangana, the secretary has suggested that the state 'should make a sincere analysis of the root cause so as to take remedial steps and to reverse this trend'. In Tamil Nadu, the Union ministry has pointed out that government schools constitute 64 per cent of the total, and account for 37 per cent of enrolment. In contrast, unaided schools make up 21 per cent of the total, and account for 46 per cent of enrolment. 'In this regard, the State was urged to build the government school brand so as to increase enrolment and make the best use of the available resources,' the minutes state. In Kerala and Maharashtra, the Union ministry flagged a drop in government and aided school enrolments in 2023-24 compared to 2018-19 in Maharashtra, and compared to 2022-23 in Kerala. In response, these states have said they have done a 'data cleansing exercise using Aadhaar verification'. In Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, the ministry has raised a drop in enrolment in government and aided schools in 2023-24 compared to figures in 2018-19 for some states and 2022-23 for others. In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Ladakh, Puducherry, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, the Education Ministry has noted that enrolment in private schools is higher compared to government schools, and has referred to this as a 'matter of concern.' A senior official in the Ministry of Education said private school enrolments are particularly high in the junior classes, and that states have been asked to check for reasons for the drop in government school enrolment. The official said, 'With aspirations, demand for private schools has also gone up.' The meetings on the PM-POSHAN scheme referred to a drop in enrolment in government and aided schools, with officials citing a data clean-up and a move to private schools in the post-Covid years as possible reasons. The UDISE+ 2023-24 data shows that private school enrolment accounts for 36 per cent (a little over 9 crore) of the total of 24.80 crore. In 2022-23, private school enrolment was 33 per cent of the total, the same as in 2021-22, and a little less than the 36 per cent recorded in 2020-21. In the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20, private school enrolment accounted for 37 per cent of the total.
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Identifying steady increase in private school enrolments, Centre asks States to reverse trend
Flagging a 'disturbing trend' of students choosing private schools over government schools in at least 11 States and Union Territories — including Uttarakhand, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh — the Union Ministry of Education (MoE) has asked these States to take 'remedial steps' to reverse the trend. The issue was pointed out to individual States in Project Approval Board (PAB) meetings held in March and April earlier this year to consider the Annual Work Plan and Budget under the Samagra Shiksha scheme for 2025-26. In Telangana, for instance, the PAB meeting minutes note that as per Unified District Information System for Eduction plus (UDISE+) 2023-24 data, out of 42,901 schools in the State, 70% (30,022) are government schools and 28.26% (12,126) are unaided schools. 'Total enrolment in government schools is only 38.11% (27.8 lakh) as compared to 60.75% (44.31 lakh) enrolment in unaided schools,' the minutes note. 'Take remedial steps' MoE has observed that the school enrolment trend during 2018-19 to 2023-24 suggests that, except during 2021-22, when education was disrupted by COVID-19, enrolment in unaided schools is steadily increasing. According to the minutes of the meetings, School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar expressed his concerns that in spite of spending a large amount of money, students are moving away from government schools, which is a disturbing trend. He suggested that States should make a sincere analysis of the root cause so as to take remedial steps and reverse this trend. 'Build government school brand' A trend similar to Telangana has been observed in Uttarakhand, where enrolment in unaided schools has steadily increased except for the COVID-19 period of 2021-22. In Uttarakhand, the minutes note, as per UDISE+ 2023-24, out of 22,551 schools in the state, 71.84% (16, 201) are government schools and 23.29% (5252) are unaided schools. 'However, total enrolment in government schools is only 36.68% (8.7 lakh) as compared to 54.39% (12.90 lakh) enrolment in unaided schools,' the minutes state. In Tamil Nadu, MoE observed that as per UDISE+ 2023-24, 64% of government schools in the State have 37% enrolment whereas 21% of unaided school have 46% enrolment. 'In this regard, State was urged to build the government school brand so as to increase enrolment and make best use of the available resources,' the minutes state. In Andhra Pradesh, the UDISE+ 2023-24 data states that, out of 61,373 schools in the State, 45,000 (73.32%) are government schools and 15,232 (24.82%) are unaided schools. 'However, total enrolment in government schools is 46.33% (40.5 lakh) as compared to 52.09% (45.53 lakh) enrolment in unaided schools. Enrolment trend during 2021-22 to 2023-24 suggests that enrolment in unaided schools is steadily increasing,' the minutes state. Data cleansing exercise During Maharashtra's PAB meet, when the Union School Education Secretary expressed concerns about the reduction in enrolment in government and aided schools, from over 1.63 crore students in 2018-19 to a little over 1.50 crore in 2023-24, the State's Principal Secretary for Education & Sports attributed the trend to a data cleansing excercise, using Aadhaar verification. Kerala's Principal Secretary for Education said a similar exercise had been done there as well, when concerns were raised about the reduction of students in government and aided schools, from close to 46.37 lakh in 2022-23 to 45.50 lakh in 2023-24. 'Apart from this, the State (Kerala) is also making APAAR IDs in order to validate enrolment details,' the minutes noted. A similar trend was also seen in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Delhi, Puducherry, and Ladakh, according to the meeting minutes.
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Education Ministry flags steady increase in private school enrolment in states, asks them to reverse trend
Pointing to the 'disturbing trend' of students 'moving away from government schools', and the steady increase in private school enrolment in states, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Uttarakhand, the Ministry of Education has asked them to take steps to reverse the trend. The matter of enrolment of students came up in meetings that the Education Ministry held with the states in March and April to discuss their projects for the 2025-26 year under the Samagra Shiksha scheme. In 11 of the 23 states and Union Territories, for which meeting minutes have been made public so far, the Union ministry has raised the matter of increasing enrolments in private schools, and decreasing enrolments in government and aided schools, despite these states having a higher number of government schools. A similar matter, on decreasing enrolments in government schools, was raised in recent meetings that the Ministry had with the states on the PM-POSHAN or midday meal scheme as well. In Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Uttarakhand, for instance, the secretary of the Education Ministry's Department of School Education and Literacy 'expressed his concerns that in spite of spending a large amount of funds, students are moving away from government schools, which is a disturbing trend.' The minutes of the ministry's meeting with Andhra Pradesh refer to UDISE+ data from 2023-24 to state that out of the 61,373 schools in the state, around 73 per cent (45,000) are government schools, and around 25 per cent (15,232) are private ones. However, enrolment in government schools is around 46 per cent of the total enrolment, while enrolment in private schools is a little more than 52 per cent of the total, going by the minutes. 'Enrolment trend during 2021-22 to 2023-24 suggests that enrolment in unaided schools is steadily increasing,' the minutes state. In Telangana and Uttarakhand, the minutes say that the enrolment trend during the 2018-19 to 2023-24 period suggests that 'except during 2021-22 (COVID-19)', enrolment in unaided schools is steadily increasing. In Telangana, it refers to UDISE+ 2023-24 data to point out that 70 per cent of the 42,901 schools in the State are government ones, but enrolment in government schools accounts for only 38.11 per cent of the total enrolment, compared to 60.75 per cent of the total enrolment being in private schools. Similarly, in Uttarakhand, close to 72 per cent of the total number of schools in the state are government ones. 'However, total enrolment in government schools is only 36.68 per cent as compared to 54.39 per cent enrolment in unaided schools,' the minutes read. In the case of Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Telangana, the secretary has suggested that the state 'should make a sincere analysis of the root cause so as to take remedial steps and to reverse this trend.' In Tamil Nadu, the Union ministry has pointed out that government schools constitute 64 per cent of the total number of schools, and account for 37 per cent of student enrolment. In contrast, unaided schools make up 21 per cent of the total, and account for 46 per cent of enrolment. 'In this regard, the State was urged to build the government school brand so as to increase enrolment and make the best use of the available resources,' the minutes stated. In Kerala and Maharashtra, the Union ministry flagged a drop in government and aided school enrolments in 2023-24 compared to 2018-19 in Maharashtra, and compared to 2022-23 in Kerala. In response, these states have said that they have done a 'data cleansing exercise using Aadhaar verification'. In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Ladakh, Puducherry, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, the Education Ministry has noted that enrolment in private schools is higher compared to government schools, and has referred to this as a 'matter of concern.' A senior official in the Ministry of Education said that private school enrolments are particularly high in the junior classes, and that states have been asked to check for reasons for the drop in government school enrolment. The official added: 'With aspirations, demand for private schools has also gone up.' The meetings on the PM-POSHAN scheme had referred to a drop in enrolments in government and aided schools, with officials citing a data clean-up and a move to private schools in the post-COVID years as possible reasons. The UDISE+ 2023-24 data shows that private school enrolment accounts for 36 per cent (a little over 9 crore) of the total school enrolment of 24.80 crore. In 2022-23, private school enrolment was 33 per cent of the total, the same as the figure in 2021-22, and a little less than the 36 per cent recorded in 2020-21. In the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20, private school enrolment accounted for 37 per cent of the total. (UDISE+ data. Total enrolment includes govt aided schools)
The Hindu
25-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
2,260 special educator posts to be filled; recruitment notification awaited
Special education teachers across Andhra Pradesh are eagerly waiting for the release of the official recruitment notification, following the State government's recent announcement that 2,260 special education teacher posts would be filled. The recruitment drive follows a recent Supreme Court directive asking all States to bring out notifications about the number of posts they have sanctioned for teachers who would impart education to Children with Special Needs (CwSN). As per the guidelines established by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), the School Education Department in Andhra Pradesh is all set to recruit special educators in the proposed ratio of 1:10 for the elementary level and 1:15 for the secondary level in nine out of the total 21 categories of disabilities. RCI works under the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, and its primary objective is to promote education, rehabilitation, and employment of people with disabilities. Out of 21 disabilities, currently RCI has standard training programmes in nine categories that include blindness, low vision, hearing impairment (deaf and hard of hearing), intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, specific learning disabilities, speech and language disability, and multiple disabilities, including deaf-blindness. According to the UDISE (Unified District Information System for Education) data for the academic year 2023-24 shows that there are 41,119 children with special needs categorised under nine different disabilities in government and government-aided schools in Andhra Pradesh. Of them, 11,360 are in 7,092 primary schools (Grades 1 to 5), which include institutions with less than 10 enrolled students. 'To maintain an optimal teacher-pupil ratio of 1:10 for these students, a total of 1,136 special educators are required,' said Samagra Shiksha State Project Director B. Srinivasa Rao. Similarly, there are 29,759 CwSN studying in 6,693 secondary schools, and as many as 1,984 inclusive education resource persons are needed to be recruited, as per the RCI's teacher-pupil ratio of 1:15, said Mr. Srinivasa Rao. Senior advisor to the Department of School Education on Inclusive Education Ramkamal says that the ultimate aim of the ongoing efforts is to blur the line between mainstream and special schools, ensuring children with disabilities are not segregated but included within the general education system. 'The State aspires to become a national model for inclusive education where every child, regardless of physical, intellectual, or learning challenges, receives equitable, quality education in a supportive environment.' Delay causing anxiety Members of the Andhra Pradesh Unemployed Special Teachers Federation, meanwhile, have expressed worry over the delay in the issue of notification for their recruitment. Pointing to several other states that have notified the recruitment process, they urged the State authorities to follow suit. Citing the data available with the Central government pertaining to the number of State-wise qualified special educators in 2021. They point out that Andhra Pradesh had 8,101 special teachers. 'Many more special teachers would have qualified in the last three-and-a-half years. We want the government to ensure justice for all,' said a federation leader.
