Education Minister reports a decline in student enrollment across 12 districts in public schools.

The annual headcount in June reveals a continuing decline in student enrollment in Kerala’s state-run schools. According to State General Education Minister V Sivankutty, this academic year saw 10,164 fewer students joining Class 1 compared to the previous year’s count of 2,68,313.

Across classes from second to 10, a total of 42,059 new students have registered, with the highest enrollment (17,011) in Class 8 and 15,529 in Class 5.

The process of establishing the teacher-student ratio is underway, involving Aadhaar verification.

The combined student strength in government, aided, and unaided schools stands at 37,46,647, with government-aided schools alone housing 34,04,724 students.

Malappuram district holds the highest enrollment at 20.73%, while Pathanamthitta district has the lowest at 2.21%.

Comparing district-wise student numbers to the previous year, there’s a drop in enrollment in 12 districts except Kottayam and Ernakulam in government schools, and in all districts except Palakkad in government-aided schools.

Additionally, 56% (20,96,846) of students are classified as Above Poverty Line (APL), while the remaining 44% (16,49,801) come from Below Poverty Line (BPL) backgrounds.