Thiruvananthapuram: Student enrollment in state-run schools in Kerala continues to fall, show the results of the annual headcount conducted in June.
The number of students who joined Class 1 in the 2023-24 academic year is 10,164 less than the strength in the previous year, said State General Education Minister V Sivankutty.
Last year, as many as 2,68,313 students had enrolled in Class 1 in public schools.
In the current academic year as many as 42,059 new students have enrolled for classes from second to 10. Most number of newly enrolled students (17,011) are in Class 8. In Class 5, 15,529 new students have secured admission.
The process of fixing the teacher-student ratio for this year is on after verifying the Aadhaar details of the students, the Minister added.
Total count
The current strength of students in government, aided and unaided schools is 37,46,647. Of this, the strength in government-aided schools alone is 34,04,724.
Last academic year, the number of students in both government aided and unaided sectors was 38,33,399.
This year Malappuram district, which tops in the number of students, accounts for 20.73 per cent of the total strength. The least number of students is in Pathanamthitta district: 2.21 per cent.
The district-wise statistics of number of students compared to the previous academic year in government schools indicate that there is a dip in student strength in 12 districts of the State, except Kottayam and Ernakulam. In the government-aided sector, the plunge is seen in all districts other than Palakkad. As many as 3,95,852 students had enrolled in Class 10.
Financial background
The Minister also informed that 56 per cent (20,96,846) students are Above Poverty Line (APL) and the remaining 44 percent (16,49,801) are from Below Poverty Line (BPL) categories.