New Delhi: The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for girls studying in classes III-V in Gujarat’s government schools has seen a decline of 19.3 percentage points, falling from 95.8% to 76.5%, data furnished by the Ministry of Education in the Lok Sabha has revealed, reported New Indian Express.Along with the decline in GER in the preparatory stage, middle stage GER has also slipped from 95.1% to 93.4%.Moreover, among students from the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, the preparatory stage GER fell from 87.0% to 67.8%, while middle stage GER fell from 86.5% to 83.1For Scheduled Tribe (ST) students, the preparatory stage GER decreased even more sharply, from 96.6% to 78.0%, a decline of 18.6 percentage points, while middle stage GER declined from 100.5% to 98.5%.A notable trend from the government data is that girls, SC and ST students all show a strong increase at the foundational stage followed by a steep decline at the preparatory stage.This makes the transition to Classes III-V the most important pressure point emerging from the government data.The data furnished by the Union Ministry of Education in the Lok Sabha on July 27, 2026, shows Gujarat had 34,699 government schools in 2021-22, which fell to 34,597 in 2023-24 before rising to 34,734 in 2025-26.