Overview
Recent data show that about 94,000 government schools shut down in the last ten years – roughly 25 schools a day. This has caused a fall of 2.26 crore in enrolment in government schools and reduced their share of total enrolment from 71% in 2005 to 49.24% in 2024‑25. The closures are concentrated in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, where the poorest children have the least ability to find alternative schooling.
Key Developments
- The NITI Aayog report confirmed 94,000 school closures and a 2.26‑crore enrolment drop.
- NEP 2020 encourages rationalisation but stresses the need for neighbourhood school provision.
- In Madhya Pradesh, 7.37 lakh children have no school record; 29,000 are in the “Drop Box” and over 3,500 government schools reported zero new admissions.
- Jammu & Kashmir closed or merged more than 4,300 schools, forcing children to travel 4‑6 km, breaching the RTE Act neighbourhood‑school mandate.
- National school‑data system UDISE+ shows government schools fell from 11.07 lakh (2014‑15) to 10.17 lakh (2023‑24), while private schools rose from 2.88 lakh to 3.31 lakh.
Important Facts
• In Madhya Pradesh, government schools dropped from 1.22 lakh (2018‑19) to 99,411 in the next year – a loss of about 22,600 schools.
• Uttar Pradesh saw a fall of over 25,000 government schools in the same period.
• State‑level outreach programmes like “School Chalen Hum” and the “Home Contact Campaign” missed three‑quarters of a million children.
• Around 11.38 lakh children in Madhya Pradesh are now in the “Drop Box” category, with 1.23 lakh already recorded as dropouts.