Assam's gross enrollment ratio in higher education stuck between 17-18 per cent: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Assam's Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma highlighted the state's challenges in higher education, noting that the gross enrollment ratio (GER) has been hovering between 17 to 18 per cent. 

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa said, "I have a concern, even this time we have seen in the higher education survey conducted by the GoI, the gross enrollment ratio in higher education in Assam is still in 17.5 per cent...it has not shown any significant increase despite of the investment made by the state government in the higher education sector last year."

Further, the CM said that despite opening PG courses and new universities, the gross enrollment ratio is still stuck between 17-18 per cent and needs to be demystified.

No going by the statistics but following the perception level, the chief minister asserted that students earlier who have not thought of doing PG courses have now enrolled themselves in different courses as well as technical courses.

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"I think either we have not participated in the enrollment process the way we should have been or somewhere there is wrong...I think the higher education department must think about it," said the chief minister.

The GER in tertiary education in Assam has seen fluctuations over the years, reaching an all-time high of 18.7 per cent in 2018, as per the data available up to 2020. 

This indicates a need for continued efforts to increase access to higher education and improve the state's GER in this sector.

The Ministry of Education, Government of India has released the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2020-2021. 

The Ministry has been conducting the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) since 2011, covering all higher educational institutions located in the Indian Territory and imparting higher education in the country. 

The survey collects detailed information on different parameters such as student enrollment, teacher’s data, infrastructural information, financial information etc. 

For the first time, in AISHE 2020-21, HEIs have filled data using an entirely online data collection platform through the Web Data Capture Format (DCF) developed by the Department of Higher Education through the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

The total enrollment in higher education has increased to nearly 4.14 crore in 2020-21 from 3.85 crore in 2019-20.  

Since 2014-15, there has been an increase of around 72 Lakh in enrolment (21%).