New Delhi: The Union government’s reports based on the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), released by compiling two years’ data together following an inordinate delay by the Ministry of Education, has found that there has been a significant decline in the number of students enrolled in undergraduate courses across the country.These revelations come at a time when students across the country, and especially in the national capital of Delhi, have come out on the streets demanding the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in a protest led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and activist-educationist Sonam Wangchuk.It is also worth noting that the AISHE released its report for 2021-22 after much delay, in January 2024. However, earlier this month, more than two years later, as the ministry released the reports for 2022-23 and 2023-24 together, it escaped public attention.According to an analysis by The Hindu, such a decline in undergraduate enrolment has happened for the first time ever since the Union government started publishing AISHE reports from 2011.Decline in undergraduate enrolmentsStudents enrolled in undergraduate courses, accounting for over 75% of all enrolments, declined by 93,000 (0.27%) in the two-year period between 2022-23 and 2023-24, per the AISHE report, despite the youth population in the eligible age group witnessing an increase. Parallely, the number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that participated in AISHE also increased from 56,180 in 2022-23 to 59,533 in 2023-24.The decline was mainly in the courses of Arts, Sciences, and Commerce.Govt ignores decline, plays up minimal rise in gross enrolment ratioThe total enrolment in higher education – including undergraduate, postgraduate, diploma, Ph.D. and other certificate courses – increased marginally by 3.7 lakh, or 0.08%, from 2022-23 to 2023-24. Meanwhile, the government played up the minimal rise in gross enrolment ratio from 29.5 to 30 in 2023-24 in its report. Per The Hindu, education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, whose ministry’s report highlighted the increased enrolment of female students in STEM courses, offered an explanation for the decline in undergraduate enrolments.The drop was mainly among male students at the national level – declining by 2.2% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 – while the number of female students enrolled in undergraduate courses saw slight increase by 1.8%, although they were fewer in numbers than the males, the daily reported.State-wise performanceThe decline was highest in three states West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, whereas Union territories such as Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir also witnessed steep falls in undergraduate enrolments. Delhi, the national capital and a major hub for higher education, registered a decline of 6% in students enrolled in undergraduate courses in 2023-24, according to the report.An increase in enrolment was reported in few other states, including Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Karnataka and Odisha, which helped increase the country’s overall performance. Per the daily, Tamil Nadu in particular recorded the highest increase of 1.6 lakh enrolments, counterbalancing the steep decline of 1.53 lakh reported in Uttar Pradesh. In UP, students enrolled in diploma courses also saw a steep increase of 1.38 lakh, a trend not noticed in other major states. In the Union government’s own words, AISHE “serves as the primary source of official statistics on higher education in India and provides critical insights for policy formulation, planning, and monitoring of the sector”. Why then there was a delay in the publication of the reports is still unclear.What the education minister said on the protestsMeanwhile, Pradhan, in his first statement on the student protests led by the CJP, attacked the Congress for ‘exploiting students’ and giving no indication that he intends to step down.He went on to say that India’s students are owed accountability, but did not indicate that he intends to step down, even as calls for his resignation in view of the NEET-UG paper leak in May – the second time the exam was compromised in three years and after which it was re-administered to some 20 lakh students – have grown shriller over the last three weeks.Thousands of protesters heeded the CJP and Wangchuk’s clarion call to march from the protest site to Parliament House on Monday, during which Delhi police and security personnel lathi-charged and tear-gassed the youth-led agitators, triggering condemnation.