The State of Scheduled Tribes Education in India: An Analysis based on UDISEPlus 2023-24 Enrollment Patterns and Challenges
Abstract
This paper examines the current state of education among Scheduled Tribes (STs) in India, analysing enrollment patterns across different levels of school education using the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) metric. Based on the latest UDISE+ data (2023-24), the study reveals significant disparities in educational access and retention among tribal communities across different states. While near-universal access has been achieved at the elementary level, substantial challenges persist in transitions to secondary and higher secondary education. The paper discusses regional variations, gender patterns, and policy implications for improving educational outcomes among tribal populations. It also acknowledges the limitations of using projected population figures based on the 2011 Census for calculating current GERs.
1. Introduction
Scheduled Tribes, constituting 8.6% of India’s population according to the 2011 Census, represent diverse indigenous communities with distinct cultural, linguistic, and geographical characteristics. The educational advancement of these communities has been a constitutional priority since independence, with special provisions enshrined in Articles 15(4), 29, 46, and 350 of the Indian Constitution. Despite decades of targeted interventions, tribal communities continue to face significant educational challenges, often reflected in lower literacy rates, higher dropout rates, and poorer learning outcomes compared to the general population.
Multiple factors, including geographical isolation, linguistic barriers, socio-economic marginalization, cultural discontinuities between home and school environments, and infrastructural deficiencies in tribal areas, influence educational progress among tribal communities. These complex challenges necessitate a nuanced understanding of enrollment patterns to inform more effective policy interventions.
This study uses the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) as the primary metric to assess the educational participation of ST students across five levels of school education: primary (grades 1-5), upper primary (grades 6-8), elementary (grades 1-8), secondary (grades 9-10), and higher secondary (grades 11-12). While acknowledging the limitations of GER as a metric, the analysis provides valuable insights into the current state of tribal education in India and identifies critical areas for policy attention.
2. Methodology and Data Sources
2.1 Data Source
This study utilizes data from the Unified District Information System for Education Plus for the academic year 2023-24, which represents the most comprehensive and recent educational database available in India. The UDISE+ system collects information from all recognized schools in the country, providing disaggregated data on enrollment by social category, gender, and educational level.
Supplementary Data Sources for Comprehensive Analysis
- NSSO 75th Round (2017-18): Reveals higher dropout rates among ST students at secondary levels due to socio-economic barriers.
- Annual Status of Education Report (ASER): Highlights foundational learning gaps contributing to higher-level dropouts.
- National Achievement Survey (NAS): If available, it could provide insights into learning outcomes among ST students.
2.2 Measurement Framework
The primary analytical metric employed is the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER), defined as:
GER = (Total enrollment in a specific level of education, irrespective of age ÷ population of the official age group corresponding to that level of education) × 100
GER is calculated separately for different levels of education and disaggregated by gender and State & Union Territory.
2.3 Limitations
While GER is widely used for educational planning and policy formulation, it has several inherent limitations that must be acknowledged:
- Age Inclusivity: GER counts all enrolled students regardless of age, including over-age and under-age students, potentially leading to rates exceeding 100%.
- Repeat Enrolments: Students repeating grades are counted multiple times, potentially inflating figures.
- Dropout Invisibility: GER measures enrollment at a specific point but doesn’t account for students who drop out during the academic year.
- Quality Indifference: GER only measures quantitative access without addressing educational quality.
- Population Projection Issues: Current GERs are calculated using population projections based on the 2011 Census, which may not accurately reflect demographic changes over the past decade. Once the Census 2021 data becomes available, these figures may change significantly.
Despite these limitations, GER remains a crucial metric for educational planning in India, particularly for tracking the progress of vulnerable groups like Scheduled Tribes, as more refined enrollment ratios are not consistently available across all states and demographic groups. However, it may be observed that other indicators such as Net Enrolment Ratio, Adjusted-NER, and Age-specific Enrolment Ratios are available for the entire child population but not for the SC, ST, and Muslim minority populations. The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education may like to extend information collection on the age and grade matrix in the case of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes population.
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Policy Framework: Samagra Shiksha and Tribal Education
Samagra Shiksha, launched in 2018-19 as an integrated scheme for school education from pre-primary to higher secondary levels, incorporates several specific provisions for enhancing tribal education. The scheme adopts a holistic approach to addressing the educational needs of tribal communities through targeted interventions. Under Samagra Shiksha, special provisions for tribal education include free textbooks, uniforms, and supplementary teaching-learning materials with culturally relevant content; transportation and escort facilities for children in remote habitations; residential facilities through Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) with at least 75% seats reserved for SC/ST/OBC/minority communities; special training centers for out-of-school children with focused attention on tribal areas; recruitment of local tribal teachers and special allowances for teachers working in tribal areas; and support for multilingual education with development of primers and materials in tribal languages, particularly for early grades. The scheme also provides context-specific interventions based on evidence-based planning at the district level, allowing for customization according to local tribal needs.
Additionally, Samagra Shiksha emphasizes community mobilization and strengthening the school management committee in tribal areas to enhance educational governance and participation. These provisions are complemented by unique monitoring mechanisms to track educational outcomes among tribal students and flexible academic calendars that accommodate the seasonal migration patterns of tribal communities. While these provisions represent significant policy recognition of the unique educational challenges faced by tribal communities, their implementation varies considerably across states, contributing to the regional disparities observed in tribal education outcomes.
4. National Overview of Tribal Education
At the national level, the GER data for ST students reveals both achievements and persistent challenges in educational participation:
3.1 Primary Education (Grades 1-5)
The national GER for ST students at the primary level stands at 98.3% (98.0% for boys and 98.6% for girls). This near-universal enrollment suggests substantial progress in ensuring access to basic education for tribal children, with girls slightly outperforming boys in enrollment.
Table 1: GER of Scheduled Tribes Children at All-India Level, UDISEPlus 2023-24
| Level of Education | Overall GER (%) | Male GER (%) | Female GER (%) |
| Primary (1 to 5) | 98.0 | 98.6 | 98.3 |
| Upper Primary (6 to 8) | 94.8 | 95.6 | 95.2 |
| Elementary (1 to 8) | 96.8 | 97.4 | 97.1 |
| Secondary (9-10) | 75.4 | 78.5 | 76.9 |
| Higher Secondary (11-12) | 46.0 | 51.4 | 48.7 |
3.2 Upper Primary Education (Grades 6-8)
At the upper primary level, the national GER for ST students is 95.2% (94.8% for boys and 95.6% for girls), slightly declining from the primary level but maintaining relatively high participation rates. The gender pattern continues to favour girls, albeit marginally.
3.3 Elementary Education (Grades 1-8)
For the combined elementary level, the national GER is 97.1% (96.8% for boys and 97.4% for girls), indicating substantial success in providing access to basic education for tribal children. This achievement can be attributed to various policy interventions, including the Right to Education Act 2009, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and targeted tribal education initiatives.
3.4 Secondary Education (Grades 9-10)
A significant drop occurs at the secondary level, with the national GER falling to 76.9% (75.4% for boys and 78.5% for girls); this represents a critical transition challenge, with nearly a quarter of ST children in the relevant age group not enrolled in secondary education. The gender gap widens slightly at this level, with girls maintaining a 3.1 percentage point advantage over boys.
3.5 Higher Secondary Education (Grades 11-12)
The most dramatic decline is observed at the higher secondary level, where the national GER drops to 48.7% (46.0% for boys and 51.4% for girls); this represents a critical educational bottleneck, with less than half of ST youth in the relevant age group accessing higher secondary education. The gender gap further widens to 5.4 percentage points in favour of girls.
5. State-wise Analysis and Regional Patterns
The state-wise distribution of GERs (Table 2) reveals significant regional variations in educational participation among tribal communities:
4.1 Elementary Education
While the national elementary GER for ST students stands at 97.1%, state-level figures range from as high as 157.0% in Meghalaya and 139.0% in Mizoram to as low as 67.6% in Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu and 67.9% in Lakshadweep. These variations reflect diverse regional contexts, historical trajectories, and policy implementations.
Table 3: Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by Gender and Level of School Education, 2023-24: Scheduled Tribes
| State/ UT | Secondary (9-10) | Higher Secondary (11-12) | ||||
| Boys | Girls | Total | Boys | Girls | Total | |
| All India | 75.4 | 78.5 | 76.9 | 46.0 | 51.4 | 48.7 |
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 77.7 | 90.5 | 83.7 | 65.3 | 86.3 | 75.2 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 96.0 | 97.2 | 96.6 | 66.1 | 72.0 | 69.0 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 65.6 | 69.5 | 67.5 | 48.7 | 53.2 | 51.0 |
| Assam | 92.5 | 96.8 | 94.7 | 53.7 | 53.0 | 53.3 |
| Bihar | 57.1 | 60.9 | 59.0 | 45.9 | 48.9 | 47.4 |
| Chandigarh | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Chhattisgarh | 63.4 | 72.4 | 67.8 | 39.8 | 53.4 | 46.6 |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu | 66.0 | 76.1 | 70.7 | 25.6 | 34.9 | 29.9 |
| Delhi | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Goa | 60.9 | 71.6 | 65.9 | 63.2 | 72.1 | 67.6 |
| Gujarat | 76.9 | 75.9 | 76.4 | 36.2 | 46.8 | 41.3 |
| Haryana | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Himachal Pradesh | 98.8 | 97.6 | 98.2 | 79.6 | 80.8 | 80.2 |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 65.4 | 62.3 | 64.0 | 32.1 | 28.8 | 30.6 |
| Jharkhand | 55.1 | 60.2 | 57.7 | 32.4 | 37.2 | 34.8 |
| Karnataka | 96.0 | 98.3 | 97.2 | 47.0 | 58.0 | 52.2 |
| Kerala | 103.4 | 95.7 | 99.6 | 89.9 | 100.7 | 95.2 |
| Ladakh | 55.6 | 66.3 | 60.8 | 29.5 | 36.4 | 32.8 |
| Lakshadweep | 52.8 | 55.7 | 54.2 | 55.1 | 48.2 | 51.5 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 56.1 | 56.3 | 56.2 | 30.9 | 35.0 | 32.9 |
| Maharashtra | 90.7 | 91.5 | 91.1 | 54.7 | 54.4 | 54.6 |
| Manipur | 50.9 | 57.0 | 53.8 | 29.7 | 32.6 | 31.2 |
| Meghalaya | 73.0 | 98.0 | 85.4 | 31.9 | 47.4 | 39.6 |
| Mizoram | 94.9 | 105.8 | 100.2 | 50.8 | 58.6 | 54.7 |
| Nagaland | 54.8 | 64.1 | 59.3 | 36.6 | 43.4 | 40.0 |
| Odisha | 84.6 | 89.6 | 87.1 | 52.0 | 58.7 | 55.3 |
| Puducherry | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Punjab | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Rajasthan | 80.3 | 79.4 | 79.8 | 59.1 | 57.8 | 58.5 |
| Sikkim | 72.9 | 78.8 | 75.8 | 56.1 | 68.1 | 62.1 |
| Tamil Nadu | 97.3 | 103.3 | 100.1 | 69.2 | 85.6 | 77.0 |
| Telangana | 82.6 | 85.0 | 83.8 | 70.7 | 79.3 | 74.8 |
| Tripura | 69.0 | 76.5 | 72.6 | 47.7 | 56.7 | 52.0 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 136.5 | 134.8 | 135.7 | 134.5 | 131.6 | 133.1 |
| Uttarakhand | 73.4 | 75.3 | 74.3 | 60.1 | 64.5 | 62.2 |
| West Bengal | 100.1 | 108.1 | 104.0 | 49.8 | 63.8 | 56.7 |
Several north-eastern states (Meghalaya, Mizoram, Assam, Tripura) show remarkably high elementary GERs, often exceeding 100%, which indicates enrollment of over-age or under-age children. This pattern suggests late entry into formal education systems, grade repetition, or data quality issues.
Central Indian states with significant tribal populations (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh) consistently show below-average GERs across all levels, highlighting persistent access challenges in regions with extensive and diverse tribal communities.
4.2 Secondary and Higher Secondary Education
The transition to secondary and higher secondary education represents a critical challenge across most states. Even high-performing states at the elementary level show substantial drops at higher levels:
- Meghalaya exhibits a dramatic decline from 157.0% in elementary to 85.4% in secondary school and 39.6% in higher secondary level.
- Mizoram drops from 139.0% in elementary to 100.2% in secondary school and 54.7% in higher secondary level.
Southern states (Kerala, Tamil Nadu) maintain relatively high GERs even at the higher secondary level (95.2% and 77.0%, respectively), suggesting more effective retention strategies and educational infrastructure.
The outlier case of Uttar Pradesh shows unusually high GERs across all levels, particularly at secondary (135.7%) and higher secondary (133.1%), which warrants further investigation regarding data quality or specific contextual factors.
4.3 Gender Patterns Across States
The gender patterns in tribal education challenge traditional assumptions about gender disadvantage:
- In most states, ST girls show higher enrollment rates than boys, particularly at secondary and higher secondary levels.
- States like Meghalaya show huge gender gaps favoring girls (47.4% for girls vs. 31.9% for boys at higher secondary).
- A few states buck this trend, including Jammu & Kashmir, where boys have higher GERs than girls at all levels.
These patterns suggest complex interactions between gender, tribal identity, and regional contexts that require nuanced policy approaches.
6. Critical Issues and Challenges
The analysis reveals several critical issues in tribal education that warrant policy attention:
5.1 Transition Challenges
The most significant enrollment drops occur between elementary and secondary levels and secondary and higher secondary. These transition points represent critical educational bottlenecks, where various push and pull factors – including distance to schools, opportunity costs, cultural factors, and academic readiness – influence continuation decisions.
5.2 Regional Disparities
The wide variations in GERs across states indicate that tribal education challenges are not uniform across India. While some states have made substantial progress in ensuring access and retention, others continue to struggle with basic enrollment at all levels; this suggests the need for state-specific approaches rather than uniform national policies.
5.3 Data Quality Concerns
Extremely high GERs in some states raise questions about data quality and the reliability of population projections used as denominators in GER calculations. Using child population projections based on the 2011 Census for calculating 2023-24 GERs introduces potential inaccuracies, particularly in regions experiencing significant demographic changes.
5.4 Quality Beyond Access
While GER provides insights into quantitative access, it offers no information on the quality of education received by tribal students. Research suggests that tribal students often face discrimination, linguistic barriers, and culturally insensitive pedagogy, leading to poor learning outcomes despite enrollment.
7. Policy Implications
The findings of this study suggest several policy directions for improving tribal education in India:
6.1 Targeted Transition Support
Policies targeting the critical transitions from elementary to secondary and secondary to higher secondary education are urgently needed. These could include bridge courses, financial incentives, career counselling, and expanded residential facilities near secondary and higher secondary schools.
6.2 Regionally Differentiated Approaches
Given the significant regional variations, a one-size-fits-all approach to tribal education is unlikely to be effective. States with consistently low GERs across all levels (particularly in central India) may need comprehensive educational reform, while others may require focused interventions at specific transition points.
6.3 Gender-Sensitive Programming
The higher enrollment rates among tribal girls challenge traditional assumptions and suggest the need for gender-sensitive approaches that address the unique barriers faced by both tribal boys and girls. These might include addressing labour market pull factors and migration patterns for boys.
6.4 Improved Data Systems
Better data collection and monitoring systems are needed to track educational progress among tribal communities accurately; this includes more refined enrollment metrics beyond GER and improved population estimates until the following census data becomes available.
6.5 Cultural Relevance and Quality
Beyond access, policies must address the cultural relevance and quality of education provided to tribal students; this includes multilingual education, culturally responsive pedagogy, and a curriculum that respects and integrates tribal knowledge systems.
8. Concluding Observations
This analysis of GER data reveals a complex picture of tribal education in India. Impressive progress has been made in ensuring access to elementary education, with near-universal enrollment at the primary level. However, substantial challenges persist in transitions to secondary and higher secondary education, with less than half of tribal youth in the relevant age group accessing higher secondary education.
Regional disparities, gender patterns, and transition challenges highlight the need for nuanced, context-specific approaches to tribal education policy. While access has improved, quality concerns and cultural relevance remain critical issues that GER data cannot capture.
It is important to note that the GER figures analysed in this study are based on population projections derived from the 2011 Census. Once the actual Census 2021 figures become available, many of these GERs will likely change significantly, potentially altering our understanding of enrollment patterns among tribal communities. Nevertheless, the patterns and trends identified in this analysis provide valuable insights for policy formulation in the interim period.
As India strives to achieve inclusive and equitable quality education for all, as envisioned in the National Education Policy 2020 and Sustainable Development Goal 4, special attention to the educational needs of tribal communities remains imperative. Addressing the challenges highlighted in this analysis will ensure that tribal children have access to and succeed in and through the education system.
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