The Economic Survey has acknowledged a gaping lacuna in government data regarding the impact of the pandemic on education, especially on 25 crore schoolchildren who have not entered a classroom in almost two years.
“It is difficult to gauge the real time impact of repeated lockdowns on education sector because the latest available comprehensive official data dates back to 2019-20. This provides the longer time pre-COVID trends but does not tell us how the trend may have been impacted by COVID-19 induced restrictions,” said the Department of Economic Affairs in its annual Survey.