More than 65,000 government schools across the country are currently functioning with fewer than 10 students, including 5,149 schools that reported zero enrolment in the 2024–25 academic year, official data from the Ministry of Education have revealed. The figures underline a growing crisis within India’s public school system.
The situation appears most severe in Telangana and West Bengal. Together, the two states account for over 70 per cent of government schools that have no students at all, pointing to sharp regional disparities in school attendance.
The data were placed in the Lok Sabha last week in a written reply to questions raised by MPs Karti P. Chidambaram and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring. The information has been sourced from the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), the government’s main platform for collecting school-level data.
In addition to schools with zero enrolment, the number of government schools operating with critically low student strength has risen sharply. Over the past two academic years, schools with fewer than 10 or no students increased by 24 per cent — from 52,309 in 2022–23 to 65,054 in 2024–25. Such institutions now account for 6.42 per cent of all government schools nationwide, reflecting a widening gap between infrastructure creation and actual enrolment on the ground.
Teacher deployment has also emerged as a concern. During the same period, more than 1.44 lakh teachers were posted in schools with fewer than 10 or no students, raising questions about staffing efficiency and the utilisation of public funds.
Responding to the issue, the Ministry of Education said school education falls under the Concurrent List of the Constitution, with state governments and Union Territory administrations responsible for school management, including teacher recruitment and deployment. The Centre added that it provides support to states and UTs through the Samagra Shiksha scheme to help maintain prescribed pupil–teacher ratios and improve school infrastructure.