Bihar Shows Steep Increase In Net School Enrolment Ratio: NUEPA

The National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) has released the education data. The NUEPA shows the gap between the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) at all levels of school education is still very wide.

One of the highlights is Bihar's performance in Net Enrolment Ratio that has reached 93.77% at the primary level, 87.63% at upper primary level (from last year's 79.06%), 42.08% at secondary level and 19.06% at higher secondary level. Jharkhand and West Bengal have also improved substantially. Traditionally well performing states - Kerala, Karnataka, Delhi and Meghalaya - continue to be consistent.

Flash Statistics 2014-15 based on data from 1.52 million schools spread over 680 districts shows that GER at primary level has been over 100 per cent (100.08%), over 90% at upper primary level, 76.64% at secondary level and 54.21% at higher secondary level. On the other hand, NER at primary level is 87.41%, at upper primary level it is 72.48%, 48.46% at secondary level and 32.68% at higher secondary level.

NER is calculated as the number of children of official primary school age who are enrolled expressed as a percentage of the total population of children of official primary school age. GER is calculated as total enrolment in primary education, regardless of age, expressed as percentage of the eligible official primary school-age population in an academic year.

This year's Flash Statistics has many new components which show that retention rate is rising among Scheduled Castes (82.93% in 2014-15 to 80.67% in 2013-14), Scheduled Tribes (68.64% from 67.68% in 2013-14), Other Backward Class (91.42% from 89.54%) and Muslims (80.61% from 78.05% ).

However, aspects that add to learning are far from visible in schools. For instance, percentage of secondary and higher secondary schools with librarian is on the decline. At secondary level only 16% schools have librarians in 2014-15, a fall from 17% in 2013-14. At higher secondary level the fall has been worse: from 28.83% in 2013-14 to 24.45% in the latest data. Strangely, more than 76% schools at all levels have libraries. Even computers is available only in 24% schools though at upper primary, secondary and higher secondary level availability of computer ranges from 40% to 80%.