New Delhi: There has been a growth of 26.5 per cent in student enrolments in schools and higher education institutions after the Narendra Modi government assumed office in 2014, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
Replying to supplementary queries of MPs during the question hour, he said there has been a 31 per cent growth in enrolment among girls between 2014-15 and 2021-22 and the figure for girls belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) stood at 50 per cent.
The enrolment growth rate for SC and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students was 44 per cent and 65 per cent, respectively.
There has been an increase of 80 per cent in enrolment among tribal girl students after the Modi government came to power, he said.
Pradhan said that after the implementation of the National Education Policy, there has been reverse migration of students. India has 30 crore students — 26 crore in classes 1 to 12 and four crore in higher education.
“In the last some years after the Modi government came to power and after implementation of the National Education Policy, there has been a 25-26 per cent jump in student enrolments in schools as well as in higher education.
“In comparison to 2014-15 with 2021-22, there has been a 26.5 per cent increase in students, which confirms that students have shown interest in gaining education,” the minister said.
Among Muslim girls, there has been an increase of 45 per cent in enrolment, he said.
The National Education Policy has been a big step which will help take the country forward and will help make India a developed country by 2047, he noted.
Responding to a question, the minister said, “We feel that India’s soul lies in its languages and the Modi government has made efforts to provide education in mother tongue.”
The CBSE has issued a circular to ensure that teaching and learning material should be made in 22 scheduled languages.
In states like Madhya Pradesh, medical and law education is being provided in Hindi, he said.
“In Maharashtra’s Pune, an entire engineering college is functioning where education is imparted in Marathi language and students will start graduating from it this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also promoting languages and has organised the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam and he has said that all Indian languages are national languages,” Pradhan said.
