Many students in 11 States and Union Territories, including Uttarakhand, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, are choosing private schools over government schools.
The Union Education Ministry finds this trend worrying and has asked these States to take steps to fix it.
Data from Unified District Information System for Education plus (UDISE+) 2023-24 shows that although most schools are government-run, more students are enrolled in private (unaided) schools in these States.
For example, in Telangana, 70% of schools are government, but only 38% of students attend them, while 61% attend private schools.
The Education Ministry urges States to improve the image and quality of government schools to attract more students.
Some States, like Maharashtra and Kerala, report a drop in government school enrollment partly due to data cleaning exercises using Aadhaar verification.
Officials recommend understanding the reasons behind the trend to reverse it and better use government resources.
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