What can I learn about my state from trends in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)?

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is a measure of the total enrolment at a particular level in education, irrespective of age, expressed as percentage of population of the official age group corresponding to that level. For example,

\[\begin{aligned} \text{GER at Primary level} = \frac{\text{Enrolment in class 1 to 5}}{\text{Projected population in the age group of 6-10 years}} \times 100 \end{aligned}\]

As this indicator is calculated using the enrolment figure of all children enrolled in the class level, it reflects a general level of participation. Thus, it is important to see the Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) figures in tandem with the GER. Compared with the NER, the GER shows the extent of participation of over- or under-age students. In order to achieve universalisation of education, the number of over- and under-age population should decline.

The GER data can be seen for the overall population or can be disaggregated by gender, social groups and geographical area. So long as you have the figures for enrolment and project population for a category, you can calculate GER for it.

What do GER trends reveal?

The value of GER indicates the degree of participation in education at that level. However, this does not indicate whether the participation is coming from the intended target group.

  1. A high value of GER likely indicates that it is likely that most of the age-specific population is enrolled at the level of education. But it does not tell us exactly how much. For that, we need to see the NER.
  2. A high value of GER should be supplemented by information on repetition, early entrants, late entrants etc. in order to reliably interpret it.
  3. A very high value of GER, i.e., greater than 100%, indicates that there are several over-age and/or under-age students enrolled at the level.
  4. A low value of GER, i.e. below 80%, indicates that a large number of children of the corresponding age group are not enrolled in the given level of education. These children may be enrolled at a different level of education or out of the school system entirely (dropped out or never enrolled).

What are some common trends of GER in India?

  1. The GER at primary and upper primary level is generally high across states, and is often more than 100%. This can be attributed to the mandatory universalisation of education and no detention policy under the RTE Act, 2009 made possible by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Samagra Shiksha.
  2. However, the GER drops greatly at the secondary and higher secondary levels. According to UDISE 2021-22, the average GER goes from near 100% at elementary to 78% at secondary and only 52% at higher secondary level. In fact, it falls further to just 27.3% at higher education (post-school) level, as per the AISHE 2020-21 report.