More parents in Goa opting for unaided schools at HS, HSS levels

Panaji: Over the years, the school enrolment trends in Goa have shown a declining interest in govt-run schools. Until a decade ago, the shift was largely seen from govt towards aided institutions.

But the figures for the last six years shows that a similar shift in preference is taking place in parents from aided to unaided schools.The data shows that the student enrolment in Goa is consistently increasing in private schools, not just at the primary school level now but also at the high school and higher secondary levels.In 2020-21, there were 4,253 students enrolled in unaided middle schools, this number grew in 2025-26 to 5,771, as per the data in the Economic Survey 2025-26.

However, what is surprising is there are close 6,000 students studying in just seven private schools, as against almost as many students 6,620 enrolled in govt schools at the middle school level, even though the number of govt school number at this level is five times at 35.Similarly, at the high school level, the enrolment in 33 private schools there is an enrolment of 4,524 students in 2025-26, as against 6,243 students in 81 govt secondary schools.

Only at the secondary school level, the number of govt schools has gone up from 78 to 81 over the last six years.At the primary school level, the number of state-run schools has drastically reduced from 728 in 2020-21 to 679 in 2025-26. The enrolment has also gone down from 19,604 to 17,684.At primary school level there are only 135 private schools as against 679 govt schools. Yet, the enrolment in the private schools is higher at 20,973 than that in the state-run ones of around 17,500.At higher secondary school level, the number of unaided schools have increased from 11 to 18 over the last six years. There are 2,102 students in 18 private higher secondary schools. Though the enrolment in nine govt higher secondary schools is 2,978, the number has consistently gone down from 3,621 in 2020-21.Across all levels though, aided schools continue to remain the most popular choice. There are 289 aided primary schools with total student numbers of 50,143.At the middle school level, some of the private school enrolment appears to shift to aided schools which have an enrolment of 57,762.There are 326 aided high schools with an enrolment of 60,040 in 2025-26. This has shown a dip of around 2,000 students from 2020-21. At the higher secondary level too, there is slight dip in student numbers from 33,337 in 89 schools in 2020-21 to 32,504 in 96 schools in 2025-26.A telling sign about the reducing student numbers in govt primary schools is the number of teachers.The number of teachers in govt primary schools has gone down from 1,632 to 1,516 over six years. The number has remained near constant in aided schools and has improved from 954 in 2020-21 in private schools to 1,198 in 2025-26.