UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2024–25:
The UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2024–25 highlights that India continues to struggle with poor learning outcomes despite near-universal school enrolment.
Key Findings of UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2024–25:
- Near-Universal Enrolment but Poor Learning Outcomes (India): Despite >95% primary school enrolment, India struggles with foundational literacy and numeracy gaps
- Globally, only 87 boys per 100 girls achieve minimum reading proficiency. In middle-income countries, it drops to 72 boys per 100 girls.
- While gender parity was improving, COVID-19 reversed gains—girls now underperform in math in countries like Brazil, UK, and Italy.
- In India, 60% of elementary teachers are women, but only 13% of vice-chancellors in central universities were women as of 2022.
- Many Indian states lack formal principal training despite NEP 2020’s provision of 50 hours of annual professional development.
- Less than 50% of surveyed countries require headteachers to undergo leadership preparation before appointment.
- In some African countries, female-led schools showed up to 1 additional year of learning gain over male-led ones.
- Case studies (e.g., Delhi’s pilot on middle leadership) show teacher trust improves with effective mentorship and distributed leadership.
