Dharmendra Pradhan says India has 35cr students in schools; presents data on education

As of today, more than 35 crore students across the country are getting an education in schools. But more than 15 crore children are still out of the education system and Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Education Minister, said while attending an event that the government is putting in efforts to include these children in the system. He further said that for the first time, the Government has combined education with skill departments to create a new approach for good livelihoods.

The adverse condition of online Indian education

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of students were pushed out of the education system. More than 2.96 crore school students across 24 states are devoid of any kind of digital access to pursue online education. Out of the surveyed states, Bihar reporting the highest number, according to government data presented in Lok Sabha. Out of the 2.96 crore students, the data does not comprise of children from Delhi (4%), Jammu and Kashmir (70%), Madhya Pradesh (70%), Punjab (42%) and Chhattisgarh (28.27%). Their absolute survey data was not shared. While the data for states like Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Manipur and Uttar Pradesh were not available and the survey for West Bengal was still in process. Hence, the real number could be a lot more than 2.96 crores. The data was presented by the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in a written response to a question in the Lower House.

As for the states which have revealed the data, Bihar has the highest number of students without any form of a digital appliance that could be used to assist them in their education. Bihar has 1.43 crore such students and in second place, Jharkhand has around 35.52 lakh students. States like Karnataka with 31.31 lakh students and Assam with 31.06 lakh students were also high up on the list. The state of Uttarakhand has 21 lakh, such children. The minister said that the remaining states with more than 10 lakh children without a digital device are Haryana, Odisha and Tamil Nadu, while Kerala has 9.5 lakh children. Getting out of the pandemic is important otherwise such children will find it difficult to recover the lost education over the next years. 

(With ANI inputs)