Student population dropped by more than 33,000 last year

The student population in the country has gone down by 33,529 last year compared to the previous year, the Central Bank said.

The Central Bank’s 2021 annual report released this week stated that the country’s student population of 4,272,289 in the year 2020 had reduced to 4,238,760 in the year 2021.

The government school population which was 4,063,685 in 2020 was reduced to 4,032,211 last year.

Not only in government schools, but student numbers also decreased in private, special needs schools and pirivenas’ as well. Private and special needs school student numbers came down from 138,726 in 2020 to 137,049 last year. Pirivenas’ too saw a drop in student monks from 69,878 in 2020 to 69,500 last year.

New admission to schools too saw a drop by 11,990 students. Last year reported 307,415 new admissions to schools, however, this number was high in 2020 (319,405).

International school student population data was unavailable in the Central Bank annual report.