UDISE+ data reveals a widening gap between enrolment at the foundational and secondary stages of school education. Discuss the causes and suggest policy measures to improve retention.

UDISE+ 2024-25 records a retention rate of 98.9% at the foundational stage but only 47.2% at the secondary stage, with dropout rising from 2.3% (preparatory) to 8.2% (secondary) [1]. This thinning of the education pyramid — GER falling from 90.3 at middle to 68.5 at secondary [1] — is India's central schooling challenge, and is structural rather than merely behavioural.

Causes of the widening gap

• Institutional pyramid: Secondary schools are far fewer than primary schools, raising distance and transport costs; Samagra Shiksha has had to upgrade 3,656 schools and add classrooms in 80,105 schools to bridge this deficit [2].
• Economic pressure: Adolescents face the highest opportunity cost of schooling, with wage work and domestic duties pulling them out precisely at classes IX–XII.
• Learning deficits accumulate: Weak foundational literacy and numeracy surface as exam failure at the board stage; NEP 2020 therefore made FLN and competency-based assessment (PARAKH) the corrective [2].
• Gendered and social barriers: Early marriage, safety in commuting, and inadequate residential facilities disproportionately affect girls and first-generation learners.
• Perceived low returns: Purely academic streams with weak skill linkage reduce the value of staying on, though vocational-course schools have expanded from 960 to 29,342 [3].

Policy measures for retention

• Track and intervene early: Use UDISE+ individual student records, APAAR IDs and Vidya Samiksha Kendras [3] to flag at-risk children and trigger counselling before dropout occurs.
• Universalise access: Upgrade composite schools and expand PM SHRI exemplar schools (12,084 selected of a targeted 14,500+) to secondary and senior-secondary stages [2].
• Reduce household cost: Extend conditional scholarships, hostels and transport support, building on PM POSHAN's proven attendance effect [2].
• Make secondary education employable: Deepen vocational and internship pathways so that Class X–XII carries visible labour-market value.

Retention, not enrolment, is now the binding constraint on India's human capital. Strengthening the secondary tier — through data-driven early warning, closer schools and skill-linked curricula — converts access into attainment, advancing the Economic Survey 2025-26's framing of education as the core pillar of Viksit Bharat @2047 [4].