Maharashtra: Students opted for govt-run schools during the pandemic

Students at a newly launched BMC ICSE school. Pic/Ashish Raje

A significant number of school children in Maharashtra have switched from private to government-run schools during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Ministry of Education's United District Information System for Education's (UDISE +) latest report. Government schools across the state have seen a jump in their total enrolment this year by over 2.5 lakh, as compared to the last academic year reveals the UDISE+ report.

As against this, private unaided schools in the state have recorded a downward trend. As per the UDISE + report, the overall enrollment in private unaided schools in the state has dropped by 1.45 lakh this year. The rise in student enrolments in government schools comes at a time the number of schools has declined. Almost 509 schools in the state have shut down this academic year, the same report has revealed.

The main causes of this reverse trend, according to some educationists, were financial strain brought on by the pandemic, free amenities at government schools, and migration due to the lockdowns. While admitting that education in private unaided schools is getting unaffordable for many, state education officials said that the jump in enrolment in government schools is also due to the success of the state education departments' school readiness programme that was conducted across the state from April 2022 to June 2022.

Also read: Covid-19 forced over 500 schools to shut down in Maharashtra

Many improvements

Kailash Pagare, IAS officer and project director at Samagra Shiksha - a Maharashtra government educational initiative, said, "While private schools are getting unaffordable for many, the quality of education and facilities provided at government-run schools have improved a lot in the past few years, and are still improving, more especially in Zilla Parishad schools. Many government schools now have robotics labs, computer facilities, etc. All these improvements and upgradation were seen by students and parents during our school readiness camps this year. This prompted more people to enrol their children in government schools, instead of spending more money on private schools. We are introducing many new initiatives almost every year to improve the standard of government-run schools." However, some in the education field differ. The headmaster of a BMC-run school said, "Earlier UDISE also gave bifurcation of schools other than private unaided, government and government-aided. For instance, schools under NIOS, madrasas and even unrecognised schools. This practice has been stopped. So I am not very sure about the UDISE data."

‘Financial crisis a reason'

Basanti Roy, former secretary of the Mumbai division of the state board, said, "During the pandemic, many people lost their jobs which brought about an economic crisis for many families prompting them to shift their wards to government-run schools. Many people migrated to their native places where they enrolled their kids in Zilla Parishad-run schools. It is difficult to say if quality education in government schools has improved so much that enrolment has jumped, but the financial crisis is definitely the reason." Enrolment in government schools jumped from 13.49 crore in 2020-2021 to 14.32 crore in the whole country this academic year, according to the UDISE+ 2021-22 report.

Schools in the state

2020-2021
Govt schools: 55,94,726
Private unaided schools: 65,37,755

2021-22
Government schools: 58,53,094
Private unaided schools: 63,92,405