Anganwadi enrolment going up in Odisha, says Education Ministry report
BHUBANESWAR: Odisha is witnessing a drop in admission of underage children (aged 5) in government primary schools and a significant rise in Anganwadi enrolment, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)-2024 of the Ministry of Education has revealed.
The report released by the ministry on Tuesday highlighted the rural school enrolment, and literacy levels of children in pre-primary, primary and upper grades in the country.
Comparing the Class I enrollment data of 2018 and 2024, the ASER pointed out that in 2018, 27.2 per cent (pc) children aged 5 were enrolled in Class I of government schools and 6.8 pc in private schools but in 2024, there was an 18 pc drop in this percentage. Likewise, 52.8 pc children aged 5 were enrolled in Anganwadi centres in 2018 and this percentage has now risen to 70.4.
Stating that going to school too early can be counter-productive, the ministry in the report further said that a child has to be cognitively and socially ready to cope with what formal schooling brings, whether in terms of curricular expectations or classroom behaviours.
“The decrease in the proportion of underage children in government primary schools in 2024 is welcome news. Earlier, for parents who did not have the economic resources to send their children to private pre-schools but had high educational aspirations for them, there was no option but to enrol their children in Std I in government school. From parents’ point of view, the rationale for this underage admission was that an early start to schooling would benefit their children’s future chances of success,” the ministry said.
The NEP-2020, which is being implemented in the state for pre-primary and primary grades, has mandated admission of children to Class I only after they turn 6 years of age. Hence, the clear shift in ensuring that children do not enter formal school before age 6 is a significant structural shift which should have positive benefits in terms of children’s future development and learning journeys, it added. NEP also mandates that children entering Class I are school-ready.
Odisha is among four states which has witnessed the trend of increasing Anganwadi enrolment and decreasing underage Class I admissions including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Interestingly, when it comes to LKG or UKG admissions of five-year-old children in private schools, the percentage has increased from 11.8 in 2018 to 15 last year.
Children in Govt Schools
Class I to V
Boys – 84.5%
Girls – 88.1%
Class VI to VIII
Boys – 91.4%
Girls – 95.2%
Children in Anganwadis
Age 3 – 93.8%
Age 4 – 90%
Age 5 – 70.4%
