Unified District Information System for Education Plus

Why in the News?

The Ministry of Education released a detailed Report on the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2021-22 on school education in India.

Key Points:

About USIDSE+

• It is an online system of data collection from the school.
• It was developed by the Department of School Education & Literacy in the year 2018-19.
• Objective: To overcome the issues related to the erstwhile practice of manual data filling in paper format. 
• In UDISE+ 2021-22, additional data on important indicators viz., 
  • Digital library, peer learning, hard spot identification, number of books available in the school library, etc have been collected for the first time to align with the NEP 2020 initiatives. 

Key Findings:

• The decline in Enrolments: The number of children entering pre-primary classes in 2021-2022 saw a further decline, resulting in 30% fewer students in this school section as compared to the pre-COVID period.
• Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER): GER improved in 2021-22 at primary, upper primary, and higher secondary levels of school education compared to 2020-21
  • More than 8 lakh new girl students enrolled in the year 2021-22.
  • Uttar Pradesh witnesses the highest number of enrolment of Students in Government Schools and recruitment of teachers.
  • GER compares the enrolment in a specific level of education to the population of the corresponding age group.
• Decline in Schools: There was a decline in the number of schools due to closures as well as a lack of teachers.
  • There were 20,000 fewer schools in 2021-2022 as the total number of schools dropped from 15.09 lakh to 14.89 lakh. 
  • These were primarly schools under “private and other management”.
• Computer and Internet Facilities: Their availability has improved as compared to pre-Covid.
• Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR): It stood at 26 for primary, 19 for upper primary, 18 for secondary, and 27 for higher secondary showing an improvement since 2018-19
• Teacher: 95.07 lakh teachers are engaged in school education during 2021-22 out of which more than 51% are female teachers.
  • Number reduced from 96.96 lakh in 2020-2021 to 95.07 lakh in 2021-2022.
• The Gender Parity Index (GPI): It was found to be favourable to girls with a GPI value of 1.
  • The Gender Parity Index (GPI) of GER indicates the representation of girls in school with respect to their population in the corresponding age group.