‘Enrolment in higher edu dippedduring pandemic’

Prayagraj: The pandemic not only took away lives and hit the earnings but even enrolment in higher education institutions was severely impacted during the outbreak of the deadly Covid-19.
Data collated from 51 state universities and 7,875 degree colleges of the state compiled by the Directorate of Higher Education, UP, shows a decline of over 4.80 lakh students in enrolment in higher education institutions in the academic session 2021-22, reveals a government report.
A total of 50,21,277 students, including 18,60,220 males and 31,61,057 females, were registered in higher educational institutions of the state in the academic session 2020-21, but in 2021-22 the number came down to 45,40,605. The decline was more in number of girls as 23,63,138 female students were enrolled in 2021-22 session, though enrolment of boys improved and increased to 21,77,467, registering a hike from 18,60,220 in the preceding session.
The number of students in higher education in 2019-2020 was 41,83,992, including 19,69,206 males and 22,14,786 females.
The decline in enrolment in higher educational institutions was more notable in females as the number of girl students dipped by 7,97,919 to 23,63,138 in 2021-22 after soaring to 31,61,057 in 2020-21 from just 22,14,786 in the 2019-20 session. The efforts of the Union education ministry and University Grants Commission (UGC) to increase enrolment of students in higher education in Uttar Pradesh suffered a setback during the pandemic.
Director, higher education, UP, Amit Bhardwaj said records show that the enrolment of students in higher educational institutions had declined during Covid. “Efforts are now being made to improve the enrolment in the 2022-23 session,” he said.
Teacher MLC (Allahabad Jhansi region) Suresh Kumar Tripathi said the pandemic impacted all walks of life and led to a fall in enrolment of students in schools and colleges. “It is time to increase enrolment of students to make up for the loss during the pandemic,” he added.