Sector
Higher Education — Access & Affordability
Who reaches higher education at all, measured chiefly through the Gross Enrolment Ratio in AISHE.
2 problems within this
Higher education reaches fewer than a third of young people, and enrolment growth has sharply decelerated
The Gross Enrolment Ratio for ages 18 to 23 crossed 30% for the first time in 2023-24, rising from 23.7% in 2014-15 and 29.5% in 2022-23. NEP 2020 targets 50% by 2035. Independent analysis of the AISHE series flags that annual enrolment growth fell to under 1% in 2023-24 after a decade of steady 3 to 4% growth — a deceleration that matters more for the 2035 target than the level itself. Evidence confidence: High for the GER series, which is the authoritative primary source; the deceleration is drawn from independent analysis of that same data. No source reviewed models the growth rate required to reach 50%, so do not state whether the target is on track.
Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe enrolment ratios remain below the national average despite a decade of convergence
AISHE 2023-24 records SC GER at 27.8%, up from 18.9% in 2014-15, and ST GER at 22.8%, up from 13.5% — both still below the national 30.0%. The gap has narrowed substantially, and its composition has shifted: SC female GER has overtaken the overall national average, which means the residual SC gap is increasingly driven by SC male enrolment rather than by the category as a whole. Evidence confidence: Medium-High for the national category figures. State-level disparities are reported to be much wider than national figures suggest, but that finding rests on a single state study and is not entered as a national pattern.
Alongside this
Higher Education — Quality, Faculty & Research
Faculty establishment, regulatory oversight and research capacity in universities and premier central institutions.
Education Governance & Regulation
Regulatory oversight of schooling, including the state's relationship with private schools, and the reliability of the data systems used to govern the sector.
Education Finance
Public spending on education by the Union and the states, and the gap between what is allocated and what is spent.
Centre-State & Federal Governance of Education
Education sits on the Concurrent List. This sector covers the constitutional and fiscal relationship between the Union and the states in governing it.
Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE)
Education and care for children aged roughly 3 to 6, delivered through both Anganwadi centres and school-attached pre-primary sections. NEP 2020 brought this stage formally into the school system's foundational stage.
Foundational & Ongoing Learning Outcomes
Whether children actually acquire reading and arithmetic at the grade these are taught, and whether learning lost during school closures has been recovered.
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