Tamil Nadu has topped the country in enrolment of students in higher education, i.e., Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education.
According to the All India Survey on Higher Education report (AISHE 2106-2017), released by Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on Friday, the State led with a GER of 46.9 per cent as against the national average of 25.2 per cent. GER for higher education is calculated with reference to the age group 18-23
The State has also done very well in male and female GER figures, as also the GER figures for the Scheduled Castes. In terms of female GER, the State stands first among the states at 45.6 per cent, which is only next to two Union Territories of Chandigarh and Delhi.
In terms of male GER, the State at 48.2 per cent tops the State and Union Territory lists. It also has the highest GER for Scheduled Castes at 38 per cent.
In the category of very low GERs come the states of Bihar at 14.4 per cent, Assam at 17.2 per cent, West Bengal at 18.5 per cent, and Odisha at 21 per cent.
According to the survey, the all-India GER at the national level had grown from 19.4 in 2010-11 to 25.2 per cent in 2016-17, and the government hoped to achieve a GER of 30 per cent by 2022.
The national average over the last seven years was as follows: 19.4 percent in 2010-11; 20.8 in 2011-12; 21.5 in 2012-13; 23 in 2013-14; 24.3 in 2014-15; 24.5 in 2015-16, and 25.2 percent in 2016-17.
In the last seven years, TN has moved from 32.9 per cent in 2010-11 to 46.9 in 2016-17, with 40 in 2011-12, 42 in 2012-13, 43 in 2013-14, 45.2 in 2014-15, 44.3 in 2015-16. This makes the State stay always ahead of the national average.
The 278-page survey report can be accessed on www.aishe.nic.in. A letter from the Deputy Director General B.N. Tiwari of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, says : “the AISHE identifies and captures the various facets of institutions of higher education in the country. The idea behind this survey and the resulting documents is to prepare a sound database on the largely diverse system of higher education in the country. It is a step towards gathering relevant statistics that could facilitate Central and State governments in devising future policies. AISHE 2016-17 being the seventh round of the annual survey since its beginning to collect the data for the 2010-11, improvement both in terms of response and the quality of data has been observed”.
During 2016-17, 795 universities, 34,193 colleges and 7,496 stand-alone institutions have uploaded the data in the prescribed data capture format. This is out of the country’s total 864 universities, 40,026 colleges and 11,669 stand-alone institutions.
Coming to Tamil Nadu, though the highest GER is enough reason to be jubilant, there is also concern that the increase in GER would pose a challenge in terms of generating jobs.
Sunil Paliwal, Principal Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Government of Tamil Nadu, had recently said in Coimbatore that “at present there are only two million jobs for six million graduates”.
So, it is a catch 22 situation for the State with high GER vis-a-vis less number of jobs.