(1) At the all-India level during the said period there has been improvement in the enrolment of both boy students [from 76.27('78) to 86.4('86)] and girl students [from 51.28('78) to 64.6('86)]. For both the sexes, rural progress is much impressive than urban progress [for boys, it has moved from 75.04('78) to 87.43('86){rural} and from 80.71('78) to 83.00('86){urban}; while for the girls, the progress is from 47.36('78) to 61.28('86){rural} and from 64.7('78) to 75.84('86){urban}]. The feature that is revealed is that in comparison with male enrolment figures the female enrolment ratios continue to be low at the all-India level. This phenomenon is true for almost all states no matter how small is the gap. This behaviour is true both for rural and urban India for both the periods; the same is true for most states.

(2) In Kerala, enrolment figures are sufficiently high for both the periods for both boy and girl students [for boys, they are 86.49 and 87.20 respectively; and for girls the figures are 85.47 and 86.10 respectively]. Accordingly, improvement in enrolment ratio is marginal here. However, when decomposed rural and urban figures are compared between the said periods, it is observed that this marginal improvement feature is more true for rural population than for urban population of Kerala.

(3) In West Bengal,improvement in female enrolment is more impressive than its urban counterpart [girl enrolment moves from 57.97 ('78) to 65.00('86) while for boys, it is from 76.93('78) to 80.40('86)]. When this progress is compared between rural and urban counterparts, it is revealed that urban progress is better than rural progress for both the sexes.

(4) When West Bengal is compared to Kerala, it is found that female enrolment ratio is very poor in West Bengal; level of male enrolment ratio is relatively better. The gap between these two states is more prevalent in more recent period, particularly for the girl students. The same observation is found to be true separately for both the sexes for both the rural and urban areas. The male enrolment figures for both the states are very close to each other for both the periods, particularly for the rural population. In fact in 1986, the enrolment ratio figures for boys are different by about 1.23% only.

(5) A peculiar feature has been witnessed for the states of North-East India: for almost all the states of this region, enrolment ratio is falling over the years; and that too for both the sexes. However, for these states, there is no such uniform pattern, when compared between rural and urban counterparts.

(6) Apart from the North-Eastern states, decline in enrolment ratios has been witnessed for three northern states, e.g., Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. For Punjab, it is decline in the rate for both the sexes; while, for the other two states it is decline in the enrolment ratio for boy students only. This decline in enrolment ratios over periods for these three states is more due to fall in enrolment of urban boy students.

(7) The states of Bihar and Rajasthan have witnessed substantial improvement in enrolment ratio of boys over the said period [70.59('78) to 94.20('86) for Bihar; while 65.86('78) to 85.10('86) for Rajasthan]. For Rajasthan, this is true for both rural and urban students; while for Bihar, this is only a rural feature.