The enrollment of students from Classes I to VIII in government schools has fallen to almost half in Madhya Pradesh during the past one decade, the state Assembly was informed on Monday.

The enrollment in these classes fell from 105.30 in 2010-11 to 64.34 lakh in 2020-21, MP Minister for School Education Inder Singh Parmar informed in a written reply to a question asked by Gwalior South Congress MLA Praveen Pathak. As per the minister’s reply, the drop has been the result of free admission in private schools under Right to Education (RTE), decline in child population and data purification due to Samagra Samajik Suraksha Mission ID (SSMID) registration. Singh said the decline in enrollment was being addressed through child-wise tracking and the efforts are being made to ensure admission of students in the 6-14 age group.

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As per the reply, 16.14 lakh children had got admission in Class I in 2010-11, which has now reduced to 6.96 lakh in 2020-21. Similarly, the admission in Class II declined to 8.05 lakh from 15.46 lakh, from 14.54 lakh to 7.85 lakh in Class III, from 13.97 lakh to 8.62 lakh in Class IV, from 13.15 lakh to 8.31 lakh in Class V, from 11.68 lakh to 7.81 lakh in Class VI, from 11.01 lakh to 8.35 lakh in Class VII and from 9.35 lakh to 8.39 lakh in Class VIII during this period.