Tamil Nadu has emerged as the leader in the country in terms of Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education.
The All India Survey on Higher Education report (2106-2017), released by Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar here on Friday, saw the State lead with a GER of 46.9%. Among Union Territories, Chandigarh recorded 56.1%.
Tamil Nadu has also done very well in terms of male and female GER figures, as also the GER figures for the Scheduled Castes.
Bihar, Assam, West Bengal and Odisha posted low GERs of 14.4%, 17.2%, 18.5% and 21% respectively. Uttar Pradesh fared marginally better at 24.9%, close to the national average.
GER for higher education is calculated with reference to the age group 18-23. It is the total enrolment in higher education, irrespective of age, expressed as a percentage to the eligible official population (18-23 years) in a given school year.
With a female GER of 45.6% , the State is just behind two Union Territories, Chandigarh and Delhi.
In terms of male GER, Tamil Nadu at 48.2% tops the list of all States and Union Territories, followed by the UTs of Chandigarh and Delhi. At 38%, it also has the highest GER for Scheduled Castes among all major states of India.
Releasing the report here on Friday, Mr. Javadekar said the all-India GER had grown from 23% in 2014 to 25.2% now, and the government hoped to achieve a GER of 30% by 2022.
The report shows that the improvement in GER has continued from the UPA to the NDA days.
It was 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.
Aadhaar for faculty
Mr. Javadekar said out of the 15 lakh teachers in higher education institutions, 85% had been seeded with Aadhaar, and this had shown that 70-80,000 of them were reported as teachers in more than one college. He added that while it was permissible to be guest teachers, the government would find out whether there were cases of fraud.
