Rajasthan
Rajasthan records its lowest enrolment growth in higher education in 18 years | Jaipur News
JAIPUR: Rajasthan recorded its lowest ever growth of 0.14% in the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education in 2022-23, a phenomenon that has baffled experts and plunged into question the Ashok Gehlot government’s claims about the state emerging as an education hub in the country.
As per the government’s data, the latest growth rate is the lowest in the last 18 years, as enrolment data is available only from 2005. In 2022-23, a little over 2,000 students were added to the previous year’s tally of 13.02 lakh. What has surfaced as an alarming situation is that for the first time, the enrolment of boys has decreased by 1.52% from 2021-22 despite the state having opened 117 new colleges in the last one year.
In absolute numbers, while 13.02 lakh students enrolled at all levels in the state in 2021-22, it was only 13.04 lakh in 2022-23. Experts say that considering the rise in population in the state, the average rise in enrolment every year should be at least around 5%.
As per the report available on the website of the department of higher education, General-EWS and Scheduled Tribes (ST) recorded a negative growth (-2.89% and -1.68% respectively) in enrolment while that for SC and OBC remained marginally up (1.89% and 1.45% respectively).
“The figures are certainly alarming. It means that many students who passed class XII did not enrol in 2022-23. The obvious reason that comes to my mind is that higher education institutes may have failed to attract them. Another possible reason could be that students of the state may be going to other states for higher education, leaving the vacuum in the state,” said Dev Swaroop, former VC of Rajasthan University and Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Law University, both in Jaipur.
Swaroop’s point is corroborated by the recently released National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) report stating that not a single state-run university and college in Rajasthan featured in the top 100 in the country.
However, one saving grace is that since 2017-18, girls continue to supersede boys in terms of enrolment in the state. In 2022-23, 6.65 lakh girls were enrolled against 6.19 lakh boys.
An analysis of the growth figures of the last five years makes the fall in enrolment growth in 2022-23 hard to understand. In 2018-19, the growth rate was 5.12% and in the following years it was 7.16% (2019-20), 5.26% (2020-21), 3.41% (2021-22) and 0.14% (2022-23).
“The government should immediately call for an inquiry into the zero-growth rate in enrolments. The growth rate of 3.41% (2021-22) was largely due to the upheaval caused by the Covid pandemic. The situations were very favourable last year for a high growth rate, considering the hope that students who had dropped out would re-join the colleges,” said KB Kothari, former policy planner at UNICEF in New York.
The number of girls is far ahead of boys in humanities and slightly behind in science and commerce. The difference remains wide in the law stream with 10,407 girls and 23,266 boys.
As per the government’s data, the latest growth rate is the lowest in the last 18 years, as enrolment data is available only from 2005. In 2022-23, a little over 2,000 students were added to the previous year’s tally of 13.02 lakh. What has surfaced as an alarming situation is that for the first time, the enrolment of boys has decreased by 1.52% from 2021-22 despite the state having opened 117 new colleges in the last one year.
In absolute numbers, while 13.02 lakh students enrolled at all levels in the state in 2021-22, it was only 13.04 lakh in 2022-23. Experts say that considering the rise in population in the state, the average rise in enrolment every year should be at least around 5%.
As per the report available on the website of the department of higher education, General-EWS and Scheduled Tribes (ST) recorded a negative growth (-2.89% and -1.68% respectively) in enrolment while that for SC and OBC remained marginally up (1.89% and 1.45% respectively).
“The figures are certainly alarming. It means that many students who passed class XII did not enrol in 2022-23. The obvious reason that comes to my mind is that higher education institutes may have failed to attract them. Another possible reason could be that students of the state may be going to other states for higher education, leaving the vacuum in the state,” said Dev Swaroop, former VC of Rajasthan University and Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Law University, both in Jaipur.
Swaroop’s point is corroborated by the recently released National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) report stating that not a single state-run university and college in Rajasthan featured in the top 100 in the country.
However, one saving grace is that since 2017-18, girls continue to supersede boys in terms of enrolment in the state. In 2022-23, 6.65 lakh girls were enrolled against 6.19 lakh boys.
An analysis of the growth figures of the last five years makes the fall in enrolment growth in 2022-23 hard to understand. In 2018-19, the growth rate was 5.12% and in the following years it was 7.16% (2019-20), 5.26% (2020-21), 3.41% (2021-22) and 0.14% (2022-23).
“The government should immediately call for an inquiry into the zero-growth rate in enrolments. The growth rate of 3.41% (2021-22) was largely due to the upheaval caused by the Covid pandemic. The situations were very favourable last year for a high growth rate, considering the hope that students who had dropped out would re-join the colleges,” said KB Kothari, former policy planner at UNICEF in New York.
The number of girls is far ahead of boys in humanities and slightly behind in science and commerce. The difference remains wide in the law stream with 10,407 girls and 23,266 boys.
