Dharmendra Pradhan Lists Out Reforms In Education System, Check Major Takeaways

NEW DELHI: The school education landscape in India has witnessed unprecedented growth and transformation under the leadership of the NDA government at the Centre, reflecting its unwavering commitment to access, equity, and excellence, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the media in New Delhi on December 17.

From robust improvements in school infrastructure and digital inclusion to empowering Nari Shakti and promoting Indian languages, every initiative has been driven by a commitment to quality, equity, and holistic development, he said.

“We stand at a pivotal juncture where our schools are not only centres of learning but also enablers of opportunity, skill, and empowerment for every child in the country,” he said.

Dharmendra Pradhan highlighted the progress achieved in the education sector since 2014. The major take aways as follows.

Growth of school infrastructure

• Electricity availability in schools increased from 53% to 91.8%.
• Access to computers improved from 24.1% to 57.2%, and internet facilities rose from 7.3% to 53.9%.
• Drinking water access went up from 83.2% to 98.3%, while handwashing facilities jumped from 43.1% to 94.7%.
• Availability of playgrounds rose from 66.9% to 82.4%.
• Library facilities expanded from 76.4% to 89%.
• Provision of ramps grew from 56.8% to 77.1%, and handrails increased from 33.9% to 52.3%.
• Rainwater harvesting facilities saw a major boost from 4.2% to 28.4%.

Increased investment in education

• The per-child expenditure incurred by the government has grown by more than 130%, rising from ₹10,780 in 2013-14 to ₹25,043 in 2021-22.

Focus on Indian language

• The government has prioritised linguistic diversity:
• Textbooks for Classes 1 and 2 are now available in 23 Indian languages.
• Multilingual e-content has been developed in 126 Indian languages and seven foreign languages on the DIKSHA platform.
• A total of 104 primers in Indian languages have been released.

Dedicated educational channels launched

• A Tamil language channel on July 29, 2024.
• ULLAS channel for adult education on September 8, 2024.
• A channel for hearing-impaired learners in Indian Sign Language (ISL) under the PM e-Vidya initiative on December 6, 2024.

Improvement in student performance

• 64% increase in students scoring higher grades in Class X.
• 66% increase in students performing better in Class XII.

Nari Shakti in School Education

• The number of female teachers has grown by over 30% since 2014.
• Over 61% of teachers recruited between 2014 and 2024 are women.
• Female teachers now significantly outnumber male teachers.

Quality and equity in KVS/NVS

• Representation of rural students in Navodaya Vidyalayas has increased from 78% in 2014 to 90% in 2024.
• OBC reservation of 27% was introduced in 2021, with representation reaching 38.83% in NVS and 29.33% in KVS by 2024.
• The number of KVs and NVs has grown from 1,701 to 1,943 schools.

Academic success

• More than 45,000 students qualified for NEET.
• Over 10,000 students cleared IIT-JEE Mains, with 2,000+ students securing admission into IITs.
• Notably, 19,154 NEET qualifiers and 4,325 JEE Mains qualifiers from NVS achieved success without external coaching.

Growth of CBSE Schools

• The number of CBSE-affiliated schools has more than doubled, increasing from 14,974 in 2014 to 30,415 in 2024.

Mainstreaming skill education

• Schools offering vocational courses have risen from 960 in 2014 to 29,342 in 2024.
• Student enrolment in skill education has surged from 58,720 in 2014 to over 30.8 lakh in 2024.

IT-enabled transparency

• The government has brought digital reforms to school management:
• Admissions, transfers, and CBSE affiliation processes are now fully online.
• KVS, NVS, and CBSE are operating on 100% e-office platforms.

New Bharat-centric textbooks under NCF

• The development of competency-based, inclusive textbooks has progressed rapidly
• New textbooks have been made available for 7 out of 15 grades, with textbooks coming out for 4 more grades in the next academic year.
• Textbooks for Arts, Physical Education, and Well-being (Grades 3–8) and for Vocational Education (Grades 6–8) are being developed.
• NCERT’s annual textbook printing has expanded from 5 crore to 15 crore books to meet demand.
• Textbooks are being prepared in all scheduled Indian languages and made accessible via online platforms.

PM POSHAN scheme

• Over ₹1.04 lakh crore was allocated from 2014–2024, compared to ₹71,525 crore in the previous decade.
• Material cost for meals was revised upwards by 13.7% from Rs. 5.45 to Rs. 6.19 for Primary and Balvatika classes. And from Rs. 8.17 to Rs. 9.29 for Upper Primary classes, with effect from 01.12.24.
• The Central government will bear the additional cost of Rs. 425.62 Cr. in FY 24-25 on account of this enhancement.

Data-driven decision making

• Technology is enabling targeted interventions and improved learning outcomes:
• 32 Vidya Samiksha Kendras have been established, with 24 integrated with the Rashtriya VSK at NCERT. In addition, there is a VSK setup at CBSE.
• More than 7 crore APAAR IDs (Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry) have been generated and validated, ensuring unique tracking of student progress.
• The PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan was conducted on 4th December 2024, covering approx. 23 lakh students across 87,619 schools.

Expansion of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

• Enhanced Access: Total HEIs increased by 13.8% from 51,534 in 2014-15 to 58,643 in 2022-23.
• University Growth: Universities grew by 59.6%, from 760 to 1,213, showcasing India’s commitment to world-class institutions.
• College Growth: Colleges increased by 21.1%, from 38,498 to 46,624, meeting the growing demand for higher education.
• Centrally Funded Institutions: 42 new institutions, including eight Central Universities, seven IITs, eight IIMs, two IISERs & IISC, one NITs & IIEST, and 16 IIITs, were added from 2014 to 2024.

Growth in student enrollment

• Total enrollment rose by 30.5%, from 3.42 crore in 2014-15 to 4.46 crore in 2022-23.
• Female enrollment grew by 38.4% from 1.57 crore to 2.18 crore contributing to the gender parity, with significant gains of about 23 % in STEM courses, rising from 35.14 lakh to 43.03 lakh.

Mission recruitment

• The government recruited 52,482 candidates from May 2014 to October 2024, more than twice of previous decade’s recruitment done i.e., 23,463.

One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)

• Government has approved One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) scheme for students, faculty, researchers and scientists of all disciplines, of HEIs under the management of the Central or State government.
• The “One Nation One Subscription” initiative aims to promote both core and interdisciplinary research by providing access to over 13,000 e-journals from 30 leading international publishers.
• A total of about Rs.6,000 crore has been allocated for the scheme for 3 calendar years, 2025, 2026 and 2027.

Centres of Excellence in AI

• Three Centres of Excellence focusing on health, sustainable cities, and agriculture have been approved, with a financial outlay of ₹990 crore (2023-24 to 2027-28).

Research parks

• Established in HEIs to promote a research ecosystem and industry-academia connect.
• Since 2014, the government has established six new Research Parks, one each at IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Guwahati, IIT Hyderabad and IISc Bangalore and IIT Gandhinagar.
• Thirteen more Research Parks will be set up at IIT Bhubneswar, IIT Roorkee, IIT (BHU), IIT(ISM) Dhanbad, IIT Ropar, IIT Jodhpur, IIT Patna and IIT Indore, IIT Palakkad, IIT Tirupati, IIT Dharwad, IIT Jammu and IIT Bhilai

Promotion of multi-lingualism

• National Level Entrance Examinations for admission to HEIs like JEE (Main), NEET(UG), CUET(UG) are conducted in 13 Languages, i.e. Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Odia, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English.

Academic Bank of Credit

• Since its launch in July 2021, as many as 2,247 HEIs registered and 1 crore student Ids mapped with more than 2 crore records

SWAYAM

• More than 3800 courses developed and 4.7 crore enrolment have been made since its inception in July 2017.
• To enhance employability of students, SWAYAM Plus has been launched in February 2024 and 320 courses have been developed in collaboration with 55 leading Industry partners.

SAMARTH

• SAMARTH is a software to digitize Higher Education Campuses.
• More than 12000 HEIs have adopted this solution.
• In current semester, 46 lakh students are enrolled and availing the facility.

SATHEE

• SATHEE was started in 2023 in collaboration with IIT Kanpur to provide free coaching classes for competitive examinations.
• SATHEE is providing support for Engineering, Medical, SSC, Banking, Agriculture and for university entrance examinations, esp. CUET.
• 10.3 lakh registered users.

NIRF ranking

• The number of applications increased from 3,565 in 2016 to 10,845 in 2024.
• Number of institutions increased from 2,426 in 2016 to 6,517 in 2024

QS Ranking

• In QS WUR 2025, 46 Indian HEI’s were ranked compared to just 11 in 2015 edition, a 318% increase in last 10 years.
• IIT, Bombay (IITB) has ranked top most among the Indian institutions and has significantly improved its ranking, climbing from 149th position in the 2024 to 118th in the 2025 QS World University Rankings.

Book promotion

• There has been substantive increase in the footfall in National Book Fair organized by Ministry of Education
• In 2014, the footfall was 4 lakhs, which has seen an exponential growth and now it has reached 19 lakhs in 2024

Smart India Hackathon

• Started in 2017, over 2 lakh teams and approx. 14 lakh students have participated since inception.
• Team participation has increased, from 7,531 in 2017 to 49,892 in 2024, a 7-fold increase.
• During same period, ideas submitted has also seen an exponential growth from 7500 to 57,000 (approx. 8-fold increase).