Govt Schools Declined Between 2019–2024 While Low-Enrolment Schools Rise: Parliament Data
New Delhi: The number of government schools in India has seen a steady decline in the last six years while the number of schools with zero or less than 10 student enrolments have increased, data presented in the Parliament on Monday (December 1) showed.
The total number of government schools fell from 10,32,570 in 2019-20 to 10,13,322 schools in 2024-25, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the Parliament in response to a question by Congress MPs Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and Karti P. Chidambaram.
Between 2019-2024, the states that saw the sharpest decline in the total number of government schools are Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Jammu & Kashmir. Madhya Pradesh saw a decline of over 7,000 schools with the total number falling from 99,411 in 2019-20 to 92,250 in 2024-25. This was followed by Odisha with over 4,600 closures and J&K with over 4,300 closures.
The states with the highest number of school closures in 2024-25 were Bihar (1890), Himachal Pradesh (492)and Karnataka (462).
The data, obtained from Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+), also showed that the number of government schools with less than ten, or zero, student enrolment increased from 52,309 in 2022-23 to 65,054 in 2024-25. However, the number of teachers at such schools increased from 1.26 lakh to 1.44 lakh in the same period.
The states with the highest number of low-enrolment schools in 2024-25 were West Bengal (6,703), Uttar Pradesh (6,561) and Maharashtra (6,552).
“The recruitment, remuneration and rational deployment of teachers fall under the purview of the respective state governments and UT administrations. The central government through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) of Samagra Shiksha, provides financial assistance to the states and UTs to maintain appropriate pupil- teacher ratio (PTR) for various levels of schooling, as per norms prescribed in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, as amended from time to time,” Pradhan said.
The minister’s response did not offer clarity on why the number of schools had fallen and if the decline was due to mergers, closure or repurposing.
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