Education in Telangana: A Mixed Picture

CATEGORY: national TAGS: education, telangana, enrollment, learning outcomes, infrastructure SOURCE: The Hindu

A decade after the creation of a separate Telangana, a Niti Aayog report titled “Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement”, presents a mixed picture of the state of education here. Data shows that the State has made rapid progress in enrollment rates and infrastructure, however, learning outcomes have dipped over the same period.

What is the Current State of Education in Telangana?

The report highlights that the Upper primary Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) has gone up from 87.92% to an unmatched 111.6%. For Andhra Pradesh, it has gone up from 81.36% to 101.0%. Primary education GER is at 114% for the State in 2024-25 that is up from 105.64%. The data is drawn from Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2014-15 to UDISE+ 2024-25, national survey on performance assessment, National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017, 2021, and the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024.

• ▸The NAS is prior to the COVID pandemic.
• ▸The State has reached universal levels for students moving from primary to upper primary stages.
• ▸It maintains a near-universal rate of 98.9% for the transition from upper-primary to secondary level.

Infrastructure Development

The report also highlights that the Availability of computer facility in schools has gone up from 37.9% to 86%. However, internet facility has gone up 15.6% to 69.3%. In the same period, AP’s internet facility for students has gone up from 12.3% in 2014-15 to 99% in 2024-25.

• ▸The coverage of functional boys’ toilets has improved from 57% to 86.7%, while the girls’ toilet coverage has improved from 44.1% to 75.6%.
• ▸Despite the drawbacks, Telangana continues to have a pupil-teacher ratio of 18, which is within the permissible limits of 20 at the primary level.

Challenges on the Ground

However, the State has the dubious distinction of having the second highest number of schools with zero enrollment at 2,245, right behind West Bengal at 3,812, and at the same time, the State also has 5,001 single-teacher schools, which serve over 62,000 students.

Significance and What Changes Now

The report highlights that the State needs to focus on improving learning outcomes, which have dipped over the same period. The State needs to focus on improving the quality of education, which is essential for the overall development of the State.

• ▸The State needs to focus on improving the infrastructure, which is essential for the overall development of the State.
• ▸The State needs to focus on improving the learning outcomes, which have dipped over the same period.

Way Forward

The State needs to focus on improving the quality of education, which is essential for the overall development of the State. The State needs to focus on improving the infrastructure, which is essential for the overall development of the State.

• ▸The State needs to focus on improving the learning outcomes, which have