Challenge of school education is to maintain retention rates: Economic Survey

The real challenge in school education is to maintain the retention rates for all classes, from primary to higher secondary levels, the Economic Survey 2024-25 said on Friday.

Retention rate is the percentage of students who enrol in a school and continue over a specific period of time. “Retention rates stand at 85.4% for primary (Classes I to V), 78% for elementary (Classes I to VIII), 63.8% for secondary (Classes I to X), and 45.6% for higher secondary (Classes I to XII),” the survey states. 

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The National Education Policy, 2020 aims for a 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 2030. “The GER is near-universal at the primary (93%) and the efforts are under way to bridge the gaps at the secondary (77.4%) and higher secondary level (56.2%),” the survey states. 

Expenditure on education has grown at a CAGR of 12% from ₹5.8 lakh crore in FY21 to ₹9.2 lakh crore in FY25 (BE), the survey says. 

India’s school education system serves 24.8 crore students across 14.72 lakh schools with 98 lakh teachers (UDISE+ 2023-24).

The National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) was launched in July 2021 by the Education Ministry to achieve foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) for every student by end of Class 3 by 2026-27. The Economic Survey proposes that to achieve this peer teaching, apart from teacher-led instruction, is a promising solution, where students learn by teaching and supporting their peers.

The survey says that while Mission Ankur in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and Bihar’s Mission Daksh aims to provide personalised mentoring for lagging students to achieve grade-level competencies by 2025, they heavily rely on teachers, highlighting the need for scalable, adaptable teaching strategies that offer personalisation without overburdening educators.

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The survey states that The ‘Nalli-Kali’ (joyful learning in Kannada) programme, which was launched in 1995 in Karnataka’s Mysuru district, focuses on peer and group work to create a collaborative classroom environment that supports self-paced, personalised learning and is now the primary pedagogy for Classes 1-3 in Karnataka to develop age-appropriate skills. The ‘Prerana’ model of education, implemented in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana through the Sikshana Foundation, also emphasises peer learning and group work, where small groups of four to five students collaborate on classroom activities, teaching and learning from each other. 

It says that Involve Learning Solutions Foundation is working with educators in six districts across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Karnataka to integrate structured peer teaching into government schools. The model pairs students identified as ‘Student Champions’ with ‘Learners.’ Each Student Champion, with better subject mastery, is trained further to support a group of four learners, their peers who struggle to understand concepts, thereby facilitating their progress through 40-minute sessions three to four times a week. 

Early evaluations in Karnataka’s Anekal block have shown increased learning outcomes in numeracy for students by 15% compared with students who did not participate in the programme. Similarly, in Bhagalpur, structured peer interactions have helped bridge reading and numeracy gaps among children who could not meet age-appropriate learning milestones, the survey states. 

The survey points out that there is a rural-urban digital divide in India with lower Internet-searching capabilities in rural areas, especially among women. It says that 63% of men and 55% of women in rural areas can search the Internet for information compared with 74% of men and 69% of women in urban areas. 

“The results highlight the need for focused efforts to close the digital gap,” the survey states. 

The survey speaks of leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for teachers’ professional development and providing AI-driven personal tutors for students. It says AI can automate tasks like lesson planning and assessment development and foster critical thinking, freeing teachers to focus on instruction and mentoring. 

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It also lauds the ‘Illam Thedi Kalvi’ Scheme launched by the Tamil Nadu government to bridge the education gap brought about by the pandemic and the digital divide. The initiative focuses on education through physical methods. The scheme was designed during the pandemic to reduce students’ reliance on Internet resources for their learning, with volunteers assisting them. These volunteers conducted door-to-door efforts to educate the students. 

The State Planning Commission conducted a rapid assessment of the programme’s impact through a comprehensive survey in September 2022. This assessment involved the active participation of volunteers, teachers, headmasters, and parents from 362 schools across six districts — Ariyalur, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Salem, Thiruvarur, and Villupuram. Parents reported a noticeable improvement in their children’s learning experiences, noting that education has become a more enjoyable activity for them. The scheme continues to run till date post pandemic to bridge learning gaps, the survey states.