Total enrolment in higher education has increased to nearly 4.33 crore in the financial year 2022 from 4.14 crore in FY21 and 3.42 crore in FY15. This is an increase of 26.5 per cent since FY15, according to the Economic Survey 2023-24 tabled in Parliament today by the Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman. The survey which referred to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2021-22 also stated that female enrolment in higher education increased to 2.07 crore in FY22 from 1.57 crore in FY15, which is a 31.6 per cent increase.
It also added that the rise in enrolment in higher education has been driven by underprivileged sections such as SC, ST, and OBC, with a faster growth in female enrolment across sections. “The higher education sector, comprising tertiary and post-school learning in universities and other institutions, has witnessed acceleration in total enrolment coupled with rising ‘enrolment equity’ over the past eight years,” reads the official press release by PIB.
The survey further mentioned that India has 26.52 crore students in school, 4.33 crore in higher education, and more than 11 crore learners in skilling institutions. It also added that there are 14.89 lakh schools, 1.50 lakh secondary schools, 1.42 lakh higher secondary schools, 1,168 Universities, 45,473 colleges, 12,002 standalone institutions, 94.8 lakh teachers in school education and 15.98 lakh teachers in higher education.
This comes a day before the announcement of the Union Budget 2024 on July 23. During the Interim Budget 2024 speech on February 9, Sitharaman said that more medical colleges will be set up and a committee will be formed to examine this purpose. She added that there are plans for the “upgradation of Anganwadi centres” as well. Around 1.4 crore youth have been trained under the Skill India Mission and 3000 new ITIs have been established, the minister said. Several new IITs and IIMs too have been set up.
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