India's education sector has witnessed significant improvements, as highlighted in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Economic Survey 2024-25, presented to Parliament today. much improvement in India's education scene, with special focus on the successful implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 as a cornerstone of national development.

School education

The survey reveals that massive school education currently serves 24.8 crore students, across 14.72 lakh schools in India with help from 98 lakh teachers. Govt schools keep dominating, even in 69% of institutions as it keeps feeding half students of this school-going population.

Pursuing the ambitious goal of NEP 2020 to achieve 100% GER by 2030, quite commendable progress has already been made. Primary education has nearly achieved universal enrolment with GER approaching 93%, whereas efforts are on focused lines to improve secondary (77.4%) and higher secondary (56.2%) participation rates.

Dropout rates

Other achievements are: dropout rates decreased steadily to 1.9% for primary, 5.2% for upper primary, and 14.1% for secondary-level students. The report also indicates some fantastic progress in digital infrastructure. The percentage of schools with access to computers has risen from 38.5% in 2019-20 to 57.2% in 2023-24. The internet connectivity has also increased during the same period from 22.3% to 53.9%.

Childhood education schemes

Two flagship early childhood education schemes were launched in April 2024: Aadharshila, which is the National Curriculum for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), and Navchetana, which is the National Framework for Early Childhood Stimulation. Navchetana brings in 140 age-specific activities for children up to 3 years of age, whereas Aadharshila focuses on play-based learning for children between 3-6 years of age.

According to the survey, digital literacy and technology integration should be of great importance in education, especially with the rise of Industry 4.0. The government launching TeacherApp is a strategic step in the direction of enabling educators, which readies students for this digital world. The recommendations are doing more emphasis on AI integration for developing skills among teachers, certification of industry-relevant skills, and creating a personalized learning solution.

A huge thrust has been given to Inclusive Education. Significant investments in infrastructure for CwSNs have been done. Under Samagra Shiksha, the number of schools with ramps now stands at more than 11.35 lakh, handrails at 7.7 lakh, and accessible toilets at 5.1 lakh.