Trends in enrollment ratio, dropout rates and teacher-pupil ratio in primary and upper primary schools in Andhra Pradesh

Primary education constitutes a very important part of the entire structure of education. It is at this stage, the child starts going to a formal institution and formal education starts. Elementary education in India has been under the control of a number of agencies. It is still under the management of some private agencies, though, the State is increasingly taking the responsibility of providing free and compulsory elementary education to all. Article 45 of the Constitution provides for free and compulsory education for all children in the age-group 6–14 years, up to a minimum level. The whole idea has been woven into the concept of Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE). The level of compulsory education as envisaged in this Article corresponds to the elementary education of eight year's duration from class I to class VIII for the children aged 6–14 years. Universalisation of upper primary education in India is normally in terms of enrolling and retaining all children belonging to the group 11 to 14. The Universalisation of Elementary Education has been recognized as a constitutional obligation in India by the year 1960 but the target has not been achieved even after 54 years of the target year.

The present study makes an attempt to assess the effect of the initiatives of the government in the field of elementary education. More specifically the study focused on the trends in Primary and Upper primary education during the period from 2000–01 to 2011–12. The study mainly focused on gross enrollment ratio of children by sex, dropout rate, size of the teaching staff by sex, and teacher -pupil ratio at the primary and upper primary stage.