More children in school, but very few enter college

Over 400 million people, or over a third of the population in 2011, had never attended any school or educational institution, new numbers from the census show. According to the new data, while enrolment in school is now over 80 per cent for school-age children, higher education enrolment remains low.

Enrolment in educational institutions rose between 2001 and 2011 at every level, most of all in the primary and secondary school-going age of 7 to14 years. Between the age of 7 and 14, over 80 per cent of children are attending school, the numbers show.

In Kerala, the proportion of 7 to 14-year-olds attending school rose from 93 per cent to over 97 per cent. In all, however, there are still over 25.6 million children between the age of 6 and 14 who are out of school.

While girls still lag behind boys in educational enrolment at this age, the gap has substantially reduced over the last decade; school and college enrolment rose faster among girls than among boys.

Despite a substantial improvement over the last decade, less than two out of three young Indians in the age group of 15 to 19 go to any sort of educational institution, the census shows.

The proportion is lower for girls, in rural areas and among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students. In 2001, just 44 per cent of those aged 15 to 19 were in school or college, while in 2011 that proportion rose to nearly 60 per cent.

There is also wide inter-State variation. While the proportion of 15 to19-year-olds enrolled in school or college is the lowest in Odisha and Gujarat at 43.3 per cent and 51.1 per cent respectively, it is the highest in Himachal Pradesh (78.51 per cent) and Kerala (82.87 per cent).

Signalling the still low proportion of young Indians enrolling in graduate and postgraduate courses, fewer than 25 per cent of those aged 20 to 24 were enrolled in an educational institution in 2011.

Even in Kerala, the proportion is just over 30 per cent. For girls, nationally, the number is substantially lower, at under 20 per cent.

Those taking up vocational education remains extremely low. Between the age of 15 and 24, the proportion of those enrolled in a vocational institute is under 5 per cent. This figure is up from just over 2 per cent in 2001.