Comparing States through Educational Indicators for Last 9 Years: AISHE Data Analysis

The higher education system in India is massive and structurally diverse with 4.3 million students in 1043 university and more than 43858 college level institutions. The educational planners, researchers and administrators may frequently need to evaluate various indicators of education using the data. The objective of the study is to compare the states in the light of few variables from AISHE database. The variables considered are number of universities-colleges/institutions, number of students enrolled (STD)- different levels and category, average number of enrolment per college(AEC), college population index (number of college per 1 lakh population)(CPI), gross enrolment ratio (GER), gender parity index (GPI), Human Development Index, etc. For this analysis only 14 states have been considered – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The states have been compared in the light of each variables over last 9 years from 2011-12 to 2019-2020.


Introduction 1
The higher education system in India is massive and structurally diverse with 4.3 million students in 1043 university and more than 43858 college level institutions. Shortage of skilled teachers remains the biggest challenge for the education sector across the world, which is expected to pose a serious threat particularly for private school operators to maintain the quality of education provided by them. The enrolment rate in the higher education segment remains low in the other countries as compared to the developed nations, reflecting a mismatch between skills taught to graduates and requirements of the labor market. This is likely to have an effect on the unemployment rate of the region. In short, there are both economic and noneconomic incentives to the individuals and to the society at large, for expansion of higher education. Investment in higher education is not just a step towards improvement of productivity and better income distribution, but also quite importantly, an action towards fostering higher autonomous citizens who will be able to decide more intelligently on the alternative life style they could have. Education helps man to climb up the social and corporate ladder for success in life. The contribution of education is significant not only in the improvement of basic needs like health and nutrition but also in the strengthening of democracy and political stability. Inadequate investment in education makes the people illiterate and backward. It is the main cause for slow growth of developing and underdeveloped economics. Education induces the process of economic growth by making available the manpower in right quantity and right quality. The economic development of a country by providing economic infrastructure, harmonizing conflicts between private and social interests, increasing labour productivity through education depends on the budgetary expenditure on social sectors. It has an influence on work, transport, health care and educational facility. Education is the engine of economic growth and social change. It creates motivation for progress and brings revolution in the ideas necessary for the progress of the country. Education not only increases the economic returns but also has a significant effect on poverty, income distribution, health, fertility, mortality, population growth and overall quality of human life.In order to take note of the effects of the New Economic Policy on social sector investment in general and educational sector in particular, it is necessary to identify the significant aspects of structural reforms in India, the measures already taken and the expected direction of the reforms.
Women's entry into higher education and employment came via the nurturing professions; nursing and teaching, towards the end of the last century, largely as a result of the efforts of social reformers to improve thelot of widows and other marginalised women. Gandhi affirmed the importance of education for women but this did little to change entrenched social attitudes. Access to education' is a telling indicator of women's status in a given society. Cultural perceptions of the roles which women are expected to fill are reflected in the extent to which women participate in formal education and the type of education to which they have access. Increasing retention rates in India suggest that young people recognise that in the new technological era their job prospects will be bleak without some form of higher level education. The rising aspiration for further education is placing increasing pressure on governments to expand all forms of post-higher secondary education or higher education.
Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is the total enrolment in a specific level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the eligible official school-age population corresponding to the same level of education in an year. The purpose is to show the general level of participation in a given level of education. It indicates the capacity of the education system to enroll students of a particular age group. Population censuses or estimates for higher education population obtained from the reports of Census Bureau for all the years based on last census data. A high GER generally indicates a high degree of participation, whether the pupils belong to the official age group or not.
The educational planners, researchers and administrators may frequently need to evaluate various indicators of education using the data. The Education for all Development Index (EDI) (framed by UNESCO) used 4 goals -Universal education, Adult Literacy, Quality of education and Gender. The proxies used to quantify EDI are -(1) adjusted net enrolment ratio (ANER), (2) adult literacy rate, (3) quality of education (may be inters of retention rate, drop-out rate, success rate, etc.), (4) gender equality (gender parity index -access, drop-out, success). The main aim is to choose indicators for quantifying development in education. In literature, the indicators used are -(i) percentage of population in the age group to the total population, (ii) apparent intake rate, (iii) net intake rate, (iv) gross enrolment ratio, (v) net enrolment ratio, (vi) age-specific enrolment ratio, (vii) percentage of private enrolment, (viii) enrolment by gender and social group/s, (ix) percentage of girls/female enrolment, (x) percentage of teachers by gender and social group, (xi) student class-room ratio, (xii) percentage of institutions with/without toilet, (xiii) percentage of institutions with furniture, (xiv) percentage of institutions with medium as mother tongue, (xv) percentage of institutions with/without library facilities, (xvi) percentage of trained teachers, (xvii) pupil teacher ratio, (xviii) expenditure, (xix) transition rate, (xx) percentage of repeaters, (xxi) repetition rate, (xxii) survival rate by grade, (xxiii) coefficient of efficiency, (xxiv) percentage of under-aged and over-aged students, (xxv) percentage of teachers in private institutions, etc.. To portray the status of higher education in the country, Ministry of Human Resource Development has endeavored to conduct an annual web-based effort 'All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE)' since 2010-11. The survey covers all the institutions in the country engaged in imparting of higher education. Data is being collected on several parameters such as teachers, student enrolment, programmes, examination results, education finance and infrastructure. Indicators of educational development such as Institution Density, Gross Enrolment Ratio, Pupil-teacher ratio, Gender Parity Index, Per Student Expenditure will also be calculated from the data collected through AISHE. These are useful in making informed policy decisions and research for development of education sector. HDI(2018) is more for the states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana & Himachal Pradesh. Best performing state in education, healthcare is Himachal Pradesh, in economy it is Gujarat, in infra-structure & agriculture it is Punjab, in law &orders it is Tamil Nadu, in governance it is Rajasthan, in tourism, environment and cleanliness it is Kerala. Most improved state are Assam in economy, Madhya Pradesh in infra-structure & agriculture, Jharkhand in education, Andhra Pradesh in healthcare & tourism, Tamil Nadu in law & order, West Bengal in environment and Odisha in cleanliness. Based on AISHE database, it is being tried in this paper,to compare the development in higher education based on different indicators. This communication is trying to state the trends in the different indicators for a selected number of states in India over the period of last 9 years.

Data
Ministry of Human Resource Development has endeavoured to conduct an annual web-based effort called All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) since 2010-11. The survey covers all the institutions in the country engaged in imparting of higher education. Data is being collected on several parameters such as teachers, student enrolment, programmes, examination results, finance, scholarship & stipend, infrastructure, etc.. Indicators of educational development such as Institution Density, Gross Enrolment Ratio, Pupil-teacher ratio, Gender Parity Index, Per Student Expenditure will also be calculated from the data collected through AISHE. These are useful in making informed policy decisions and research for development of education sector. Based on AISHE database, in this paper, attempt has been made to quantify the development in higher education of 14 states(large). It is intended to have idea using data from 2011-12 to 2019-20. Data for 2019-2020 is provisional (as on 01.09.2020 and linearly estimated for the non-response HEIs). The reports and raw data of AISHE are being used. lt is being considered the variables like number of universities-colleges/institutions, number of students enrolled (STD)-different levels and category, average number of enrolment per college(AEC), college population index (number of college per 1 lakh population)(CPI), gross enrolment ratio (GER), gender parity index (GPI), Human Development Index, etc. For a primary analysis only 14 states have been considered like -Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Kerala
It may be noted that number of colleges has not much increased as compared to universities.     It may be informative that the ratio of under-graduate enrolment to total enrolment is around 76% in Andhra Pradesh, 88% in Bihar, 76% in Gujarat, 77% in Haryana, 79% in Himachal Pradesh, 85% in Jharkhand, 75% in Karnataka, 77% in Kerala, 72% in Madhya Pradesh, 78% in Maharastra, 80% in Odisha, 81% in Rajasthan, 71% in Tamil

Remarks
The variables considered here are number of universities-colleges, number of students enrolled (STD)-different levels and category, average number of enrolment per college(AEC), college population index (number of college per 1 lakh population)(CPI), gross enrolment ratio (GER), gender parity index (GPI), etc. 14 states have been considered -Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The states have been compared separately for each of the variables. The trend in GER, GERM(GER for Male) and GERF(GER for Female) are not always increasing. GPI is minimum in Gujarat. The slope of trend in total enrolment are positive except in Haryana. Average enrolment per college is increasing for all the selected states. The under-graduate enrolment is more than 75% of total enrolment and post-graduate enrolment is more than only 18% of total enrolment. The number of colleges have not increased quite smoothly over the last 9 years but number of universities have increased sharply over last 9 years in all 14 states.