Challenge of school education is to maintain retention rates: Economic Survey

Economic Survey 2024-25 highlights challenges in school education, emphasizing retention rates, digital divide, and innovative teaching strategies.

The real challenge in school education is to maintain the retention rates for all classes, from primary to higher secondary levels, the Economic Survey 2024-25 said on Friday.

Retention rate is the percentage of students who enrol in a school and continue over a specific period of time. “Retention rates stand at 85.4% for primary (Classes I to V), 78% for elementary (Classes I to VIII), 63.8% for secondary (Classes I to X), and 45.6% for higher secondary (Classes I to XII),” the survey states. 

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The National Education Policy, 2020 aims for a 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 2030. “The GER is near-universal at the primary (93%) and the efforts are under way to bridge the gaps at the secondary (77.4%) and higher secondary level (56.2%),” the survey states. 

Expenditure on education has grown at a CAGR of 12% from ₹5.8 lakh crore in FY21 to ₹9.2 lakh crore in FY25 (BE), the survey says. 

India’s school education system serves 24.8 crore students across 14.72 lakh schools with 98 lakh teachers (UDISE+ 2023-24).

The National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) was launched in July 2021 by the Education Ministry to achieve foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) for every student by end of Class 3 by 2026-27. The Economic Survey proposes that to achieve this peer teaching, apart from teacher-led instruction, is a promising solution, where students learn by teaching and supporting their peers.