Part A: Education Data and Trends

With over 15 lakh schools, 92 lakh teachers and 25 crore student enrollments, India is home to the largest and most complex education system globally. This section provides a data backed insight into this system along the following lines: 

Trends in number
of schools, students and teachers
Share of management types and rural-urban variation

Learning
outcomes 


Budget
expenditure 

The intent is to provide a ready reference to data enthusiasts in the school education sector.
Reference period of data analysis ranges between 2013 and 2018, data sources on the next slide. 

1

Data Sources and Reports

UDISE 2013-2018

Education Statistics at a Glance 2005-06, 2015-16

Economic Survey of India 

NAS 2017

ASER 2018

Union Budget 2013-14 to 2019-20

UDISE does not cover all of the ‘unrecognized’ private unaided schools, leading to an under-estimation in the true size of the private school sector

2

India, with 25 crore children enrolled in 15 lakh schools, has the largest school education system globally

This figure has remained fairly consistent in the period between 2013 and 2018

Number Of Schools
Enrollment
Source : UDISE

3

Half of India's school going population is in primary grades

Enrolment by level of education (201718)
Source : UDISE

4

Primary grade enrollment witnessed steady decline from 2013 to 2018

This observation is in line with the Economic Survey of India 2018-19

The survey notes that India is set to witness a sharp slowdown in population growth in the next two decades. The
0-19 age bracket has already peaked due to sharp decline in total fertility rates (TFR) across the country

The southern states, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal and Maharashtra have fertility rates well below the replacement rate

Enrolment by level of education
Primary
UP
Secondary
Higher Sec
Annual population growth rate in India (%)
Source: UDISE, Economic Survey of India 2018-19

5

More students dropout of school as they progress across grades

While near-universal enrollment has been achieved at the elementary level (grade 1-8), the enrollment consistently falls with successive levels of education

However, GER at the upper primary(92.8%), secondary (80%) and senior secondary (56.2 %) levels have increased int he period between 2008 and 2015

Enrolment by level of education
2008-09
2015-16
Source : Education Statistics at a glance, MOE, 2018
*Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) is the number of students enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population corresponding to the same level of education. GER can exceed 100% due to the inclusion of over-aged and under-aged students because of early or late school entrance and grade repetition
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6

Access to education appeared uniform across gender*,  SC, ST

Gross enrollment rate for girls is at par or higher than boys at all levels of education

Boys
Girls
Gross enrollment rate (All)
Gross enrollment rate (SC)
Gross enrollment rate (ST)
Source : Education Statistics at a Glance, MOE, 2018
*UDISE does not cover all of the ‘unrecognised’ private unaided schools, leading to an under-estimation in the true size of the private school sector.Also, parents prefer sending boys to private schools (ASER 2019), hence it is likely that these calculations have underestimated number of boys enrolled in schools
‍

7

Girls enrollment appears to have improved across all education levels

There is a stark improvement in the gross enrollment rate for upper primary, secondary and higher secondary schools

2005-06
2015-16
Gross enrollment rate (All)
Gross enrollment rate (SC)
Gross enrollment rate (ST)
Source: Education Statistics at a Glance  2018; Education Statistics at a Glance  2005-06

8

There has been a rise in number of teachers in the period between 2013 and 2018

The total number of teachers grew from 82 lakhs to 92 lakhs in this period

Number of Teachers (5 year trend)
Source : UDISE

9

Decline in pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) from 31 to 27 pupils per teacher

For most of the states, the PTR has been well below or close to the ideal PTR (30:1) as stated by the Right to Education Act

Bihar, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand are three states that have observed steepest decline in their PTRs over the years. These states witnessed a rise in number of teachers but also a decline in student enrollment in this period

Karnataka is the only state where PTR increased (by 1.3) in this five-year period

Pupil Teacher Ratio (National Level)
Change in PTR (2017-18 v 2013-14)
Source : UDISE

10

Decline in number of schools with zero or one teacher

Among large states, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have the highest proportion of zero or one teacher schools

25% of schools in Arunachal Pradesh have zero or one teacher

Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep and Puducherry are the only states where no school had less than two teachers

% of schools which have 0 or 1 teacher
Large State
Small State
UT
Number of schools having zero or one teacher
Source : UDISE

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Rural vs. Urban

12

Majority of India’s 15 lakh schools are in rural areas accounting for 85% of all schools

The percentage share of rural (85%) and urban (15%)  schools has remained consistent between 2013 and 2018

Number of schools – Rural vs Urban
Rural
Urban
Number of schools – Rural vs Urban
Rural
Urban
Source : UDISE

13

Number of schools and student enrollment higher in rural locations

Rural locations constitute 85% of schools and 71% of enrollment in the country

Number of schools – By location (2017-18)
Number of Students – By location (2017-18)
Source : UDISE

14

Three quarters
of all teachers are based in rural locations

The total number of teachers has seen a growth in both rural and urban locations

In urban locations, number of teachers grew from 21 lakh to 25 lakh between 2013 and 2018

During the same time, number of teachers grew from 61 lakh to 67 lakh in rural locations

Number of teachers – Rural v Urban
Urban
Rural
Share of teachers by location
Source : UDISE

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Government
vs. Private

16

Of the total schools, 70% or 11 lakh are government schools, its share however is declining

The percentage share of private schools increased 5 percentage points between 2013 and 2018

Although the number of government schools has not seen any significant change, its percentage share decreased by 2 percentage points

Schools by Management Type
Share of schools by Management Type
Govt
Private
Govt Aided
Source : UDISE

17

Student enrollment in private schools is increasing

Total private school enrollment as well as percentage share of private schools has seen a steady increase since 2013-14

During the same time, government enrollment increased briefly in 2014-15 and declined since

This growth in private school enrollment can be seen across all states in this five-year period

Enrollment share by Management Type
Govt
Private
Govt Aided
Source : UDISE

18

Rural areas are mainly served by government schools

While 77% schools in rural areas are government run, only 33% of them operate in urban areas

There has been a slight decline in the percentage share of government schools in both rural and urban areas

Percentage share of schools by Management Type (Rural)
Others
Government Aided
Private
Government
Percentage share of schools by Management Type (Urban)
Others
Government Aided
Private
Government
Source : UDISE

19

Students in rural settings predominantly attend government schools

Enrollment share of private schools has grown in both rural and urban locations

Enrolment Share by Management Type (Urban)
Others
Government Aided
Private
Government
Enrolment Share by Management Type(Rural)
Others
Government Aided
Private
Government
Source : UDISE

20

Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram and Uttarakhand witnessed significant shift towards private schools between 2013 and 2018

Most states have witnessed an increase in the share of private schools

In contrast, private school share declined in Tripura, Telangana and Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Difference in Private School Share (2017-18 v 2013-14)
Large State
Small State
UT
Source : UDISE

21

Private schools have more students per school than government schools

Govt schools have between 111 and 234 students per school, in rural and urban areas respectively. In comparison, private schools have 207 and 299 students per school in rural and urban areas respectively

Between 2013 and 2018, students per school has seen a declining trend although it appears more pronounced for private schools

Students Per School (2013-14 vs 2017-18)
2013-14
2017-18
Students Per School (2017-18)
Govt
Private
Source : UDISE

22

Government schools employ majority of teachers in India

The percentage share of teachers in government schools declined from 56% to 53.8% between 2013 and 2018

In the same period, number of private school teachers saw a 8pp increase, from 29.4% to 37%

Number of teachers by Management Type (2017-18)
Percentage share of teacher by Management Type
Govt
Private
Govt Aided
Source : UDISE

23

Private schools have more teachers per school compared to government schools

Govt schools in urban areas (8) have double the number of teachers (per school) compared to rural (4) areas

Between 2013 and 2018, teachers per school has seen an upward trend across private and government schools in both rural and urban locations

Teachers per school (2013-14 vs 2017-18)
2013-14
2017-18
Teachers per school (2017-18)
Govt
Private
Source : UDISE

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Learning Outcomes

25

Learning
outcomes remain consistently low in
primary education

Learning outcomes in Indian primary education have been consistently low. Even though children are moving up from one grade to another, few master the grade-level competencies expected of them
ASER, based on a sample of schools in all rural districts, shows that 72% of grade 5 children from rural India cannot do simple division problems. The percentage of students who can correctly do a three-digit to one-digit division problem reduced from 68% in 2010 to 43% in 2018
NAS cycle 3 and 4 for grade 5 revealed that 19 out of 31 states/union territories which participated in both cycles show a decline in language and math outcomes in government schools
The outcomes are low across all categories of schools, although the problem is particularly acute in government schools with affordable private schools performing slightly better on an average. High fee paying private schools achieve significantly better outcomes than both school types but lower than international averages*

26

Older children perform better than younger in grade 1

Many 4 & 5-year old children are able to comfortably do several several age/grade appropriate cognitive tasks

Within Grade I, children's performance on cognitive early language and early numeracy is strongly related to their age. Older children do better on all tasks

For example, within the Grade I cohort only a small percentage of age 4 and 5 children can read Grade I level text (5.7%). This proportion increases with age, with 12.7% of 6-year-olds and 26% of 7 and 8 year-olds able to read Grade I level text

Children in Grade 1 who can correctly
do cognitive tasks by age
Pattern recognition
Puzzle
Seriation
Distribution of children’s reading
ability in Grade 1 by age 2019
Not even letter
Grade 1 Level text
Letter
Word
Source : ASER 2019

27

By grade 3, students lag behind their grade level competencies

Students foundational skills tend to improve with each subsequent grade.But even by grade 3,a substantial percentage of all children are well behind where they are expected to be by end of
grade I

Children's ability to read grade I level text improves from 34.8% of children in grade 2 to 50.8% children in grade 3 being able to successfully do so. However, this implies that half of all children in grade III are at least two years behind where the curriculum expects them to be

Similarly, 41.1% of students in grade I can recognize two-digit numbers, while 72.2% of students in grade 3 can do so

Distribution of children’s ability
to recognize numbers within each grade
Not even 1-9
No: Recognition 1-9
No: Recognition 11-99
Distribution of children’s
reading ability within each grade
Not even letter
Letter
Word
Grade 1 Level text
Source : ASER 2019

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Approximately 50% of grade 5 students cannot read grade 2 level text,  72% cannot do division

Private schools score 20.9pp higher than government schools in reading and 17pp higher in math

Slightly more than half of all children enrolled in grade 5 can read at least a grade 2 level text. This figure has increased from 47.9% in 2016 to 50.5% in 2018

Percentage of children in grade 5 across India who are able to do division has increased from 24.9% to 27.9% between 2012 and 2018. This rise is seen in both private and government schools

% children in Grade V who can read Grade II level text
Govt
Pvt
Govt and Pvt
% children in Grade V who can do division
Govt
Pvt
Govt and Pvt
Source : ASER 2019

29

By grade 8, a majority of students manage to successfully complete a grade  2 level reading task

The gap between private and government schools is smaller in grade 8 compared to grade 5. Private schools score 14pp higher in both reading and math

Proportion of children enrolled in grade 8 in India who can read at least grade 2 level text has declined from 76.5% in 2012 to 73% in 2018. The decline can be seen across private and government schools

Currently around 44% of all children in grade 8 can solve a three-digit by one-digit numerical division problem correctly. This too has seen a decline across private and government since 2012

Children in Grade VIII who can read Grade II level
Govt
Pvt
Govt and Pvt
Children in Grade VIII who can do division
Govt
Pvt
Govt and Pvt
Source : ASER 2019

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NAS data suggests, 54% of  Grade 8 can read Grade level text

67% students in Grade 3 can read small texts with comprehension; number decreases to 54% by Grade 8

56% students in Grade 3 can use basic math to solve daily life problems; number decreases to 38% by Grade 8

Grade 10 students perform the best in language subjects and poorly in math and science

Average performance of students (Grade X)
Who can read with comprehension
Who can solve daily life problems using math
Source : UDISE

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Budgets

32

Budgeted expenditure on education witnessed steady increase between 2014 and 2017

The budgeted expenditure on education increased from Rs 3.6 lakh crore in 2014-15 to Rs 4.6 lakh crore in 2016-17

States contributed 80% of budgeted expenditure towards education

Budgeted Expenditure (in crore)
Centre
State
Total
% Contribution to budgeted expenditure (Centre v State)
Centre
State
Source : Analysis of Budgeted Expenditure 2014-15 to 2016-17, MOE 2018

33

Expenditure on education, as a percentage of GDP, increased between 2006 and 2016

Centre’s expenditure, as a percentage of GDP, has remained consistent

State expenditure, as a percentage of GDP, has steadily increased in the same period

Expenditure on Education as % of GDP
Source : Analysis of Budgeted Expenditure 2014-15 to 2016-17, MOE 2018

34

Assam, among large states, has the highest education expenditure
as percentage of GSDP

Among large states, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh have spent over 5% of GSDP on education

Small states such as Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland had the highest education expenditure as percentage of its GSDP

% of Education Budget to Total GSDP
Source : Analysis of Budgeted Expenditure 2014-15 to 2016-17, MOE 2018

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