Enrolment up 4 lakh in govt schools in Karnataka: Report

Sruthy Susan Ullas / TNN / Updated: Nov 4, 2022, 04:38 IST

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Enrolment up 4 lakh in govt schools in Karnataka: Report

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BENGALURU: Enrolment in schools in Karnataka went up year on year by nearly 2.4 lakh during 2021-22, according to the latest Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report released by the ministry of education (MoE) on Thursday.

Government schools made a huge gain registering an increase of about 4.1 lakh in enrolments, while their private counterparts lost out by about 1.6 lakh children.

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The pandemic resulted in anexodus of students from private to government schools as families' finances took a hit. The government should use the increase in enrolment as an opportunity to rejuvenate its schools and push them towards excellence so that they can continue to attract more students. Quality teaching, English medium of instruction, robust infrastructure, presence of kindergarten section and timely distribution of free schemes are important to sustain interest in public schools.

The number of schools in Karnataka that closed down during this period is around 500, and the dip in the number of teachers is close to 23,000.
The UDISE report said that the trend was visible at the national level too and attributed it to the pandemic that resulted in closure of schools for close to two years in the country. It also pointed at the postponement of admissions due to Covid-19.
"In 2021-22, enrolment of students in school education from primary to higher secondary is around 25.6 crore. This is higher by 19.4 lakh as compared to the enrolment of students in 2020-21," it said.
'Dip due to closure of schools under private & other managements'
The decline in total schools is mainly due to closure of schools under private and other managements. The total number of teachers also declined by 1.9 % in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21," it said.
As per the report of 2021-22, the enrolment in Karnataka was 1.1S crore. In 2020-21, it was 1.18 crore. The enrolment in government schools went up from 50.3 lakh to 54.5 lakh in this period. The dip in aided schools was from 15.7 lakh to 14.9 lakh. The numbers dipped by 1.6 lakh in unaided schools.
The number of schools declined from 76,950 to 76,450 in one year. They shut schools included 265 private and 72 aided ones. " The rigid rules enforced by the government on private schools is making it impossible for budget schools to sustain. To run a school here requires huge investment. However, none of these parameters are applicable to government schools," said D Shashi Kumar, secretary, Association of Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools of Karnataka.

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