India's schools are witnessing a paradox-while the country has added more teachers than ever before, the number of students enrolled has fallen for the second year in a row. According to the Education Ministry's UDISE+ 2024-25 report, released Thursday, total school enrolment now stands at 24.69 crore, down by over 11 lakhs from 24.80 crore in 2023-24. In the previous academic year too, enrolment had slipped by nearly 37 lakh students from 25.17 crore to 24.80 crore.
This juxtaposes the improvement in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)-which measures the total enrolment in a level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population. The GER at the Middle level (Class 6 to Class 8) increased from 89.5 per cent in 2023-24 to 90.3 per cent, while at the Secondary level (Class 9 to Class 12), it rose from 66.5 per cent to 68.5 per cent.
However, addressing the downward trend in the number of students enrolled, Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Sanjay Kumar, said the numbers reflect a changing demographic pattern of the country. "The drop in enrolment is primarily due to the declining fertility rate", he said adding that the data has been projected based on the last census which happened in 2011, acting as the denominator.
The fall in student numbers comes despite the education system achieving a milestone of more than 1.01 crore school teachers, the highest ever, compared to 98 lakh last year. This rise has sharply improved the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR), now at 10 in the foundational years, 13 in preparatory, 17 in middle, and 21 in secondary, well ahead of the National Education Policy's target of 30:1.
The number of single-teacher schools has fallen by 6 per cent, while zero-enrolment schools have dropped by 38 per cent, pointing to better rationalisation of resources.
The data also points to steady progress in reducing dropouts too. Rates have dipped to 2.3 per cent at preparatory level, 3.5 per cent at middle, and 8.2 per cent at secondary. Retention rates are improving too, 47.2 per cent this year, up slightly from 45.6 per cent last year, though less than half of students continue beyond Class 9.
On infrastructure, the report records 64.7 per cent schools now have computers (up from 57.2 per cent), and 63.5 per cent have internet access (up from 53.9 per cent). Nearly all schools have drinking water (99.3 per cent), electricity (93.6 per cent) and gender-specific toilets (97.3 per cent for girls, 96.2 per cent for boys).
Officials said the findings show an education system that is "expanding in quality and infrastructure" but also facing the reality of a shrinking student population.
