The state has recorded the highest ever enrolment of 13 lakh students in government schools in the 2021-22 academic session. This has taken the total enrolment to almost 1 crore against 87 lakh in the 2020-21 academic year.
The rise is attributed to transfer of students from private to government schools in the pandemic year, enrolment of children from migrant families and improvement in quality Education. The desert state is among the few in the country that offers free education in government schools.
The situation in several schools has come to a level where they have refused admission to students due to running full capacity.
The performance of government schools during lockdown has also shown exemplary results. Programmes like SMILE and Aao Ghar Se Seekhen (Lets Learn From Home) where students are being taught online or through pre-recorded Videos have had a major impact in containing the Learning outcomes of students.
The rise in figures in government schools clearly means that fall of numbers in private schools. Data on private school enrolments for 2021-22 and 2020-21 is officially not available. In 2019-20, the official figures say that enrolment in private schools were 81 lakhs while in the government schools were 85 lakh in 2019-20.