Rajasthan: RTE Schools Data

The Rajasthan Elementary Education Department has a good website where quite some data is available with regard to RTE. It maintains a separate Private School Portal where this data is made available.

Information regarding the following are available

1. Total number of registered (private) schools
2. Total number of schools admitting RTE students
3. Total number of RTE students enrolled
4. Total number of schools qualifying for RTE reimbursement
5. Total number of RTE category children for whom reimbursements have been made
6. Total amount reimbursed

The information is available from 2013-14 onwards.

Also, the information is available under two categories – “Ele” and “Sec”. I am assuming Ele is for Lower Primary schools and Sec is for Upper Primary Schools (which also have Lower Primary).

The tables below cover only points 1, 2 and 3 from above. The goal is to look at some school related parameters and their trends.

Number of registered private schools

Year	Elementary Schools	Secondary Schools
2013-14	17047	10414
2014-15	17473	11726
2015-16	18712	12010
2016-17	20307	13324

As you can see, the total number of schools has been consistently growing.

Number of private schools admitting RTE category students

Year	Elementary Schools	Secondary Schools
2013-14	14869	8811
2014-15	15525	10143
2015-16	16076	10008
2016-17	15214	9623

Percentage of total schools admitting RTE students

Year	Elementary Schools	Secondary Schools
2013-14	87.22	84.60
2014-15	88.85	86.50
2015-16	85.91	83.33
2016-17	74.91	72.22

Both in terms of actual number and the percentage of total schools, the schools admitting RTE category children has started to come down. The fall is quite steep in 2016-17 compared to 2015-16.

Number of verified RTE students

Year	Elementary Schools	Secondary Schools
2013-14	139740	64018
2014-15	216884	167854
2015-16	285756	220973
2016-17	284308	235202

The total number of RTE students being enrolled is showing an upward trend (except for a minor dip in 2016-17 in Elementary schools). This shows that in the schools that admit RTE category children, the percentage of children being admitted is probably better enforced. Therefore, even though the total schools admitting RTE children has come down, the actual number of students has gone up.

Of course, it would be interesting to know the reasons behind the dip in the total number of schools that are admitting RTE students since 2015-16. And once we have numbers for 2017-18 and later, it would be possible to verify if the trend remains southwards.

Reference: Govt of Rajasthan Elementary School Education Private Schools Portal.

Note: If you go through the link and compare the various years, you will notice a massive dip in the number of schools that have qualified for RTE reimbursement in 2016-17. I am leaving that data, and any possible cause-attribution, out of the scope of this post.

Note2: The screenshots of the tables from the portal are available here for reference.