STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: On comparison of the data uploaded in the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) portal and the data collected by the Student Database Management Information System (SDMIS), it was seen that there was a decline in enrolment of students in 2022-23 as compared to the previous year 2021-22. However, State Education Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu said that this data discrepancy was due to correction of UDISE data and ‘ghost students’.
Prior to 2022-23, enrolment of students was collected from UDISE based on the entry made by the school authorities of the students enrolled in the school and the entry made by the school authorities in the UDISE + portal. With the launching of SDMIS in the year 2022-23, details of each student like name, father’s name, mother’s name, address etc. were collected and subsequently uploaded in the UDISE + portal.
The total enrolment in all schools of Assam as on 10.06.2023 was 70,95,759 students against the enrolment figure of 75,44,956 as shown in UDISE 2021-22. On comparison of data, there is a decline of enrolment of 4,49,197 students (5.95%) in comparison to the previous year 2021-22.
Addressing a press conference in Guwahati today, State Education Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu said, “The enrolment in government/provincialized schools in 2021-22 as shown in UDISE was 51,37,047 while in 2022-23 it is 50,11,634 as on 10.06.2023. There is a shortfall of 1,25,413 students (2.44%). The enrolment in private schools in 2021-22 as shown in UDISE was 15,95,135 while in 2022-23 it is 14,02,579. There is a shortfall of 1,92,556 students (12.07%). In venture schools, there is a shortfall of 1,31,228 students (16.15%) as the enrolment in 2021-22 was 8,12,774 students while the enrolment in 2022-23 is 6,81,546 students.”
The Education Minister attributed the discrepancy in data due to correction of UDISE data. “Revision, polishing and correction of data has been going on in the UDISE + portal since last year. The correct data has now been uploaded. The shortfall in student enrolment is not due to students dropping out of schools but due to wrong entry of data. We have corrected the data now and in future there will be no discrepancies in data,” he said.
The minister further added, “Based on the data, it was seen that there was a significant drop in student enrolment in venture schools. There may have been ghost students and in 19,000 pre-primary schools, an excess number of students was shown. This has been corrected now.”
Some other factors have also been attributed for the decline in enrolment which are – a number of students took admission in other private schools which were not registered in UDISE; cleaning of duplicate enrolment from the database; migration of students from one location to another and non-removal of student from the earlier database; student below the age of five having enrolled in Ka-Sreni were removed from the database; and removal of long absentee students from the database.
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