Sector
School Access, Enrolment & Retention
Who is in school at all, who leaves, and at which stage — separate from what children learn once they are there.
3 problems within this
Retention collapses between elementary and secondary school
UDISE+ reports foundational-stage retention near-universal while secondary-stage retention is a little under half. Dropout is not spread evenly through schooling; it concentrates at the transition into secondary. The absolute number of secondary-stage dropouts remains in the millions even as the rate improves year on year. Note that the reported secondary dropout rate for 2024-25 differs between the Ministry's own release and independent analysis of the same dataset, apparently because of differing computation methods — do not publish a single rate without stating which method it uses. Evidence confidence: High for the pattern and the improving trend; Medium for any single current percentage.
1 sub-problem
Millions of adolescents are out of school, and official estimates of how many cannot be reconciled
The Department of School Education & Literacy has publicly cited PLFS estimates of over two crore children aged 14–18 not attending school. UDISE+, an administrative enrolment-based system, produces a much larger figure for a wider age band. The two are not measuring the same thing — administrative enrolment records against household-reported attendance, over different age ranges — so they cannot be summed or directly compared. The size of the population is officially acknowledged; its precise scale is not settled. Evidence confidence: High that a large out-of-school adolescent population exists and is officially acknowledged; Medium on its size.
1 sub-problem
Recorded school enrolment has fallen over several years without an agreed explanation
UDISE+ records a multi-year fall in total school enrolment, continuing into 2024-25. At least three explanations are in circulation — declining birth cohorts, removal of duplicate records following the move to Aadhaar-linked individual student records, and real dropout — and they imply completely different policy responses. The Ministry attributes part of the fall to de-duplication. Until the causes are separated, the fall should be treated as an unresolved measurement question, not as evidence that children have been lost from the system. Evidence confidence: High for the recorded decline; the cause is genuinely unresolved and must not be asserted.
Alongside this
Teachers & Teaching Workforce
Recruitment, deployment, qualification and distribution of school teachers — largely governed by state service rules rather than by schools themselves.
School Infrastructure
The physical and digital conditions of the roughly 14.7 lakh schools captured by UDISE+, and the gap between a facility being present and being functional.
Digital Education & Digital Divide
Household and individual access to devices and connectivity for learning — the demand side of the digital divide, as distinct from what schools themselves have.
Student Health, Nutrition & Wellbeing
The physical and mental health of school and college students, including nutritional surveillance and examination-related distress.
Vocational Education & Skilling
The skilling system under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, the ITI network, and the transition from education into work. Carries the strongest audit evidence in the domain.
Higher Education — Access & Affordability
Who reaches higher education at all, measured chiefly through the Gross Enrolment Ratio in AISHE.
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