Enrolment in government schools fell by nearly 86 lakh between 2023-24 and 2025-26: MoE report

NEW DELHI: Enrolment in government schools fell by nearly 86 lakh between 2023-24 and 2025-26 while private unaided recognised schools added more than 88 lakh students during the same period, according to the UDISE 2025-26 report released by the Ministry of Education.

UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education Plus) is the Centre's official digital database for the education sector. Maintained by the Ministry of Education, it collates real-time statistics on school infrastructure, student enrolment, and teacher metrics.

The total enrolment from foundational to secondary level stood at 24.72 crore in 2025-26, compared with 24.80 crore in 2023-24 - a decline of about 8.26 lakh. But enrolment in government schools fell from 12.75 crore to 11.89 crore, while for private unaided recognised schools it rose from 9 crore to 9.89 crore, according to the report.

The number of schools declined marginally from 14.72 lakh to 14.67 lakh, but the teacher base rose from 98.08 lakh to 1.03 crore (1,02,73,020), improving the overall pupil-teacher ratio from 25 to 24. Zero-enrolment schools fell from 12,954 to 5,663, while single-teacher schools declined from 1.11 lakh to 1.01 lakh.

The academic year 2025-26 has shown a positive trend in student retention at the middle and secondary levels, increasing from 82.8 per cent (2024-25) to 83.7 per cent (2025-26) at the middle level and from 47.2 per cent (2024-25) to 51.9 per cent (2025-26) at the secondary level, the report said.

A marginal decline was observed at the foundational and preparatory levels in 2025-26, following three consecutive years of improvement from 2022-23 to 2024-25.