Gujarat may well have the penchant of being called number one in various fields but the state is ranked 18th in the country when it comes to higher education.
According to the All India Higher Education Survey on the website of the Department of Higher Education, only 24 out of 100 students who have enrolled for school education opt for higher education. The survey was conducted in 2021-22.
Delhi tops the list with 49 per cent followed by Tamil Nadu 47 per cent and Himachal Pradesh at 43.1 per cent. Even states like Uttarakhand, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir are ahead of Gujarat.
When it is further bifurcated, the percentage for boys opting for higher education stands at 25.2 per cent and girls at 22.7 per cent. In Scheduled Caste it stands at 32.3 percent and Scheduled Tribe at 20.4 percent.
Privatisation of schools, lack of opportunities in jobs, high fees are multiple factors that force students to drop out after grade XII.
This appears ironic in Gujarat considering that Narendra Modi, who hails from Gujarat, had in a big way publicised the campaign to enroll students in schools. He is also considered to be the brain behind the slogan “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” (Save Girl Child, Educate Her).
However, the slogans do not seem to be translating into action. In the recent budget that was presented in the state assembly, the state government has earmarked Rs 46.259 crore for general education, excluding professional and technical education. This is just 12.49 per cent of the state budget and comes to only 1.55 per cent of the GSDP. In 2022-23, the budget for general education was 14.17 per cent.
Hemant Shah, a former professor of Economics, told Vibes of India that ideally, the overall budget for education should be 6 percent.
He pointed out that students continue to drop out from primary, secondary and higher secondary levels and as a result the number of students enrolling for higher education is very less.
Shah also pointed out to costly education in private colleges and lack of faculties, including principals in government schools, as reasons for the drop in numbers when it comes to enrollment in colleges and universities.
Expressing concerns over the figures, Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi told Vibes of India that there should be a good number of government and grant-in-aid schools and that is not happening.
According to him, there are no job opportunities as well. Even after spending Rs 3 lakh to become a graduate, there is no guarantee that the pass outs would get a job of Rs 30,000 a month, he remarked.
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