PANAJI: School enrolment from Classes I to VII dropped by around 3,000 during the academic year 2020-21, which was the first school year after the Covid-19 pandemic hit. From Classes I to IV, enrolment was down by over 2,700 since the previous academic year 2019-20, and students studying from Classes V to VII reduced by 512, as per the directorate of education’s (DoE) educational statistics at a glance for the year.
After the first lockdown was imposed in 2020 to control the spread of Covid-19, the state saw an exodus of migrants employed in Goa. This could be one contributing factor to the sudden drop in enrolment during the year 2020-21.
However, it appears from the figures that a general fear of the pandemic could also have kept students across various sections of society from entering the school system, as the biggest drop was seen in new enrolments that take place at the Class I level. The number of students registering for Class I came down by as many as 2,285 students in 2020-21 over the previous year.
In 2020-21, 895 fewer girls and 1,390 fewer boys entered the school system at Class I.
Also, the enrolment in schools show a dip at the primary school level from Classes I to IV across institutes runs by different managements — government, aided and private.
From Class V to VII, on the other hand, some of the loss in enrolment of private schools appears to result in a minor gain for aided institutions.
This was presumably due to parents’ reduced spending power, leading them to prefer the affordable fee structure of government-aided schools.
However, the DoE data also shows an unexplained increase in enrolment by around 1,700 students from Class VIII to X in 2020-21 as against 2019-20. Most of the gain in students last year at this level is shown at the Class X level, indicating that many could have returned to school to complete their schooling.
This gain in numbers at Class X level has kept the overall school enrolment from Class I to X in Goa from dipping massively despite reduced enrolment in the lower classes. The total number of students in school in 2020-21 in Goa was 2,38,927, as compared to 2,40,450 recorded in 2019-20.
