Despite consistent efforts by the state government to improve primary education in the state with events like 'Gunotsav' and 'Praveshotsav', the response is well below expectations.

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According to figures given by the state government, Gujarat has 60 lakh students studying in 32,742 government schools, which is a vast reduction compared to a decade ago.

Since 1999-2000, there has been a tremendous fall in the number of students. In 1999, the state had 81.34 lakh primary students, which has fallen to 60 lakh this year - a drop of over 21 lakh.

Sharing more, Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said, "There has been a decline in the number of students studying in classes VIII-XII. The Education Development Index (EDI) of Gujarat is quite low as compared to other major states of the country. In 2007-08, Gujarat stood 9th in terms of primary school education, and the position slipped to 13th in 2008-09."

According to the statistics from the director of primary education, in the year 1999-2000, there were a total of 81 lakh primary students in the state, of which 46 lakh were boys and 34 lakh, girls.

"However today, the state has around 60 lakh students studying primary education which is a tremendous reduction over the years," Doshi says. He questioned as to why the state is busy celebrating when there is such a worrying decline in primary education numbers. He said that villagers' children in particular are deprived of primary education.

In addition, the Congress has demanded that the state government declare model rules for the Right to Education (RTE) Act and also emphasise on the need to implement it effectively across the state.