VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh has emerged as a national benchmark for expanding educational access, marking a transformative decade of growth in student retention.
According to the 2026 NITI Aayog report ‘School Education System in India: Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement’, released recently, the State’s transition rate from primary to upper-primary levels surged from a baseline of 52.7% in 2014–15 to 94.2% in 2024-25.
This momentum is further reflected in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for upper-primary schooling, which climbed from 81.36% to 101.0%, signaling that the State has effectively achieved universal enrolment for the middle school years.
Analysts note, however, that the 2014-15 baseline should be viewed as a ‘post-bifurcation’ marker, as administrative realignments during that period created visible data anomalies across the region.
Despite these access-led victories, the report identifies a significant ‘secondary attrition’ challenge that threatens to stall human capital development. As students progress toward higher grades, Andhra Pradesh faces a secondary school dropout rate of 15.5%.
NITI Aayog points to institutional fragmentation as a primary driver of this trend. With 38,212 standalone primary schools compared to just 557 institutions offering a continuous Grade 1-12 pathway, students frequently exit the system during the logistical hurdles of moving between different school stages.
This ‘fragility’ in the secondary link remains a critical bottleneck, as the leap from local primary schools to distant secondary complexes often discourages continued education for students from rural or economically vulnerable backgrounds.
On the quality front, the report highlights the ‘We love reading’ initiative as a vital state-level intervention for addressing foundational literacy gaps. The programme was launched to combat a historical baseline where 77% of Grade 3 students struggled with basic reading tasks.
By institutionalising reading periods and libraries across 45,000 schools, the state has prioritized a “reading to learn” culture. While the state has shown measurable recovery in foundational competencies, the report emphasizes that bridging the remaining learning gaps - particularly as students move into conceptual middle-stage mathematics—will require more intensive pedagogical support and a shift away from rote learning models.
To achieve the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047, the roadmap for Andhra Pradesh involves a strategic shift toward ‘structural consolidation.’ By integrating fragmented schools into ‘School complexes,’ the State can minimises dropouts at the secondary level.
Furthermore, addressing workforce concerns remains a structural priority. While official state-wide vacancy percentages were not finalised in the latest national dataset, the report stress optimal pupil-teacher ratios.