GUWAHATI: A total of 4.49,197 ghost students have been found enrolled in various schools, mostly venture schools in the state of Assam.
“From the SDMIS (Student Data Base Management Information System), it is revealed that the total enrolment in all management schools is 70,95,759 as on June 10, 2023, against the enrolment figure of 75,44,956 as shown in UDISE 2021-22,” State Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said addressing a press conference at NEDFi House on Monday.
“There is a shortfall of 4,49,197 students in this year’s database of U-DISE compared to the previous year. The rate is 5.95 per cent,” Pegu said.
Pegu said the rate of ghost students is higher in venture and private schools than in government and provincialised schools.
“While the venture schools recorded 16.15 per cent ghost students, private schools recorded 12.07 per cent ghost students,” the minister said.
“The total enrolment in venture schools was 8,12,774 in UDISE 2021-22 which has decreased to 6,81,546 in SDMIS 2022-23. There is a shortfall of 1,31,228 students. Similarly, the total enrolment in private schools in UDISE 2021-22 was 1,59,135 which has declined to 1,4,02,579 in SDMIS 2022-23. There is a shortfall of 1,92,556 students,” the Minister further said.
The Minister also claimed that the ghost students recorded in government and provincialised schools are only 2.44 per cent. The total enrolment in government and provincialism schools was 51,37,047 in UDISE 2021-22 which has decreased to 50,11,634 in SDMIS 2022-23. The shortfall is 1,25,413.
Prior to 2022-23, enrolment of students was collected from Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) based on the entry made by the school authorities of the students enrolled in the school and the entry made thereof by the school authorities in the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) portal.
“With the launching of SDMIS in 2022-23 details of each student, including their name, their father’s name, mother’s name, guardian’s, address, and Aadhaar numbers were collected which was subsequently uploaded in the UDISE + portal,” Pegu said.
“We have conducted a series of meetings with the officials of the districts wherein the districts were asked to ensure data entry of each and every eligible student and also verify and analyse the reason for the decline,” Pegu said explaining the reasons for the high rate of ghost students in venture and private schools.
“Most of these schools were trying to grab more allotment for mid-day meals, school uniforms and other government benefits for which they show higher enrolment,” he also said.
“We are taking actions against those who have been showing higher enrolment. But most of them admitted their mistakes. I now prefer to take corrective measures for it,” Pegu said.
“A number of students took admitted to other private schools which didn’t have/ not registered in UDISE. Cleaning of duplicate enrolment from the database, removal of fake enrolment, migration of students from one location to another and non-removal of the student from the earlier database, students below the age of five having enrolled in Ka-Sreni are removed from the database, removal of long absentee students from the database and wrong reporting by few schools on the UDISE portal of 2021-22,” the Minister added further explaining other reasons for declining of enrolment in schools.
