Education for at least one lakh high school IX and X class students has been disrupted in Telangana during the pandemic. On average, the number of enrollments in Class IX and X is around 9.8 to 10.5 lakh every year since 2013. Nonetheless, this year, high school student enrollment showing a stark deviation and is at 9.69 lakh. With this, there are concerns that not all may return to classrooms.
According to the data available with Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE), 2018-19: a total of 10.91 lakh high school enrollments registered at 38 thousand odd high schools (govt and private) in Telangana. The Director of School Education (DSE) data for the 2020-21 academic year suggests that the total number of students at all high schools in the state is 969,058, of which around 80 per cent of students are attending the school after they re-opened on February 1.
According to the teachers, many of the 20 per cent of students remain untraceable, while some are not attending the school because of the COVID-19 pandemic. "We cannot call all 20 per cent of students dropouts. But we sure for the fact know that many of these students have remained untraceable and are not attending online classes either," Ch Ravi, general secretary of the government teachers body, Telangana State United Teachers Federation.
It is not just government schools. Many private schools in the state, according to Telangana Recognized School Management Association have been reporting the same issue with at least 15 per cent of high school students. "Due to the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents have not paid the fee. At least 10 per cent of the students who are not attending school or online classes remain untraceable," Sreedhar Reddy, a member of TRSMA.
According to UNESCO, the education of over 154 crore students has been discontinued globally after schools got shut down due to the pandemic. Although the state saw a shift of nearly 50,000 students from private to government schools this academic year, in the face of financial distress in households and shutdown among private schools, the number of enrollments has too, shown a shift.
Total number of enrollments in Telangana: 55,52,789
Number of students in High Schools: 969,058 of which Class IX has 482050 and Class X has 487008.
Class X enrollment 2018 regular: 5,38,726
Class X enrollment 2019 regular: 5,06,202
Class X enrollment 2020 regular: 5,34,903
Class X enrollment 2021 regular: 4,87,008
