The Union Ministry of Education released a detailed Report on the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2021-22 on school education in India.
About UDISE
Unified District Information System for Education (UDSIE), initiated in 2012-2013, integrating DISE for elementary and secondary education, is one of the most extensive Management Information Systems on School Education. It covers more than 1.49 million schools, over 9.5 million teachers, and more than 265 million children.
About UDISE+
Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) is an updated and improved version of UDISE. The entire system is now online and has been collecting data in real-time since 2018-19.
The Department of School Education & Literacy developed the UDISE+ system of online data collection from the schools in 2018-19 to overcome the issues related to erstwhile practices of manual data filling in paper format.
In the UDISE+ system, improvements have been made mainly in the areas related to data capture, data mapping, and data verification.
UDISE+ collects information on school profiles, physical infrastructure, teachers, enrolments, examination results, etc., through an online Data Collection Form (DCF). The DCF is divided into 11 Sections, and each section includes multiple questions to capture various performance indicators of the school.
In UDISE+ 2021-22 Report, additional data on significant indicators, such as a digital library, peer learning, number of books available in the school library, Hard spot identification, etc., have been collected for the first time to align with the NEP 2020 initiatives.
Key Findings of UDISE+ 2021-22 Report
- More than 8 lakh new girl students enrolled in 2021-22.
- The number of students enrolled under SC, ST, OBC and CWSN increased in 2021-22.
- 95.07 lakh teachers are engaged in school education during 2021-22, out of which more than 51% are female teachers.
- Uttar Pradesh witnesses the highest number of student enrolments in Government Schools and recruitment of teachers.
- Nearly 77% of schools in India had playground facilities in 2021-22. It has improved by 3.4% over the year 2018-19.
- 33% or 4.98 lakh schools have been certified under Fit India Schools.
- Nearly 27.7% of schools in India had Kitchen Gardens in 2021-22. It has improved by 32% over the year 2018-19.
Number of Schools
The total number of schools in 2021-22 stood at 14.89 lakhs compared to 15.09 lakhs in 2020-21.
The decline in the total number of schools is mainly due to the closure of private and other management schools and the grouping/clustering of schools by various States.
Enrolments of Students
In 2021-22, the total number of students enrolled in school education from Primary to Higher Secondary was a little over 25.57 Crore, compared to 25.38 Crore enrolment in 2020-21, registering an increase of 19.36 lakhs enrolments over 2020-21.
During 2021-22, the enrolment for boys was 13.28 Crore, and that of the girls was 12.28 Crore.
The total number of Scheduled Caste (SC) enrolments from Primary to Higher Secondary has gone up to 4.83 crores, compared to 4.78 Crores in 2020-21. Similarly, the total Scheduled Tribe (ST) enrolments rose to 2.51 crore in 2021-22 from 2.49 crore in 2020-21. Also, the total number of Other Backward Castes (OBC) students increased to 11.48 crore in 2021-22 from 11.35 crore in 2020-21.
Total enrolment of Children with Special Needs (CWSN) in 2021-22 stands at 22.67 lakh compared to 21.91 lakh in 2020-21, registering an improvement of 3.45% over 2020-21.
Number of Teachers
The total number of teachers declined by 1.95% in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21.
95.07 lakh teachers engaged in school education during 2021-22, which has declined from 97.87 lakh in 2020-21.
Out of 95.07 lakh teachers in 2021-22, more than 51% are female teachers.
There were 47.1 lakh female teachers in 2018-19, which has gone up to 48.77 lakh in 2021-22. On the other hand, there were 47.2 lakh male teachers in 2018-19, which has reduced to 46.3 lakh in 2021-22.
Improvement of teaching and non-teaching staff
The number of teaching and non-teaching staff has improved over the years. The total number of non-teaching staff during 2021-22 stood at 15.19 lakh, compared to 12.37 lakh in 2018-19.
Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)
The Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) compares the enrolment in a specific level of education to the population of the age group that is most age-appropriate for that level of education.
The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) has improved in 2021-22 at Primary, Upper Primary, and Higher Secondary levels of school education compared to 2020-21.
In 2021-22, the GER of Primary was 104.8%, for Upper Primary was 94.7%, and for Secondary was 79.6%.
Notably, GER for Higher Secondary has also shown improvement from 53.8% in 2020-21 to 57.6% in 2021-22.
Gender Parity Index (GPI)
The Gender Parity Index (GPI) of GER shows whether the representation of females in school education is in line with the ‘representation of girls in population of corresponding age group’.
A GPI value of ‘1’ or more shows that the GPI is favourable to girls, while a GPI of less than 1 indicates a relative under-representation of girls in that specific level of School Education.
Currently, the GPI is ‘1’ or more at all levels of school education. The GPI at Primary and Higher Secondary was more than 1 for all the years 2018-19 to 2021-22.
In 2021-22 over 12.29 Crore girls enrolled in Primary to Higher secondary, showing an increase of 8.19 lakh compared to the enrolment of girls in 2020-21.
Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR)
Another Key Performance Indicator of school education is Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR).
When measured at disaggregated levels of education, PTR shows the availability of an adequate number of teachers for teaching the children enrolled at different levels of education.
A reduction in PTR indicates that the number of students per teacher has reduced, implying more focus of the teacher on students resulting in an improvement in the quality of teaching.
In 2021-22, the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) stood at 26 for Primary, 19 for Upper Primary, 18 for Secondary and 27 for Higher Secondary showing an improvement since 2018-19. The PTR for Primary, Upper Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary was 28, 19, 21, and 30, respectively, during 2018-19.
School Infrastructure
As per the UDISE+ data, all major infrastructural facilities improved in 2021-22 compared to the previous year. The percentage of schools having specific infrastructure facilities in 2021-22 are as follows:
- Electricity connection: 89.3%
- Drinking water: 98.2%
- Boys’ toilet: 96.2%
- Girls’ toilet: 97.5%
- CWSN toilet: 27%
- Handwash facility: 93.6%
- Playground: 77%
- Ramp: 71.8%
- Ramp with Handrail for CWSN: 49.7%
- Computer: 47.5%
- Internet: 33.9%
- Kitchen Garden: 27.7%
- Library/ Reading room/ Reading corner: 87.3%
Additional Indicators
For the first time, the additional indicators have been included in the UDISE+ 2021-22 to align with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 initiatives.
- Based on the NEP 2020 initiatives, Samagra Siksha Scheme identified some of the essential areas of intervention for the holistic development of children from the early stage. These identified indicators include:
- Provision of sufficient books in the school library,
- Introduction of peer learning in the schools,
- Academic enrichment activities undertaken by schools,
- Training students on the psycho-social aspects,
- Orientation on cyber safety to students,
- Identification of Hard-spot in learning,
- Creating outcome-based assessment items by teachers for understanding,
- Teaching tools created by teachers for teaching and learning.
- During 2021-22, the data in respect of government and government-aided schools indicates that:
- 35% of the schools have created learning outcome-based assessments,
- 79% of schools have undertaken academic enrichment activities,
- 26% of schools formed criterion-referred items,
- 73% of school teachers have created teaching tools for teaching and learning,
- 18% of schools identified Hard-spot in learning outcomes
- 6% of schools provided training on psycho-social aspects,
- 8% of schools have provided orientation on cyber safety to students,
- 52% of all schools have introduced peer learning programmes in their schools.
As per UDISE+ 2021-22, there are 106.24 Crore books available in schools translating into an average of 713 books per school.
During 2021-22, a total of 24.72 lakhs students has identified as Gifted children. The schools provided 9.8 lakhs mentors to Gifted children. More than 90% of Gifted children participated in the Nurturance camp at State/National Level. 1.06 lakhs children appeared in State Level Competitions/Olympiads/National Level Competitions.
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on enrolment
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is particularly noticed in the enrollment of young and vulnerable kids, like Pre-primary classes may be attributed to the postponement of admission due to COVID-19.
A total of 94.5% lakh students enrolled in Pre-primary classes in 2021-22, showing a drop of 10% compared to the previous year when 1.06 crore children enrolled in these classes in 2020-21. However, in 2020-21, there was already a drop of 21% in enrolment in Pre-primary sections, compared to 1.35 crore the year before the pandemic. Lookdown measures resulted in school closures and classrooms moving online.
Enrolment in Primary classes also saw a fall for the first time dropping from 12.20 lakh in 2020-21 to 12.18 lakh in 2021-22.
However, the total number of students enrolled from Primary to Higher Secondary increased by 19% to 25.57 Crore in 2021-22.
The enrolment of students in Pre-primary to Higher Secondary increased by 7.85 lakh in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21.