Government schools across India lost nearly 86 lakh students between the 2023-24 and 2025-26 academic years, while recognised private unaided schools added more than 88 lakh students during the same period, according to the UDISE+ 2025-26 report released by the Union Ministry of Education.

The report shows that enrolment in government schools declined from 12.75 crore in 2023-24 to 11.89 crore in 2025-26. In contrast, enrolment in recognised private unaided schools increased from 9 crore to 9.89 crore. Overall student enrolment from the foundational to secondary level stood at 24.72 crore in 2025-26, compared to 24.80 crore two years earlier.

The total number of schools fell marginally from 14.72 lakh to 14.67 lakh. However, the number of teachers increased from 98.08 lakh to 1.03 crore, improving the national pupil-teacher ratio from 25:1 to 24:1. The number of zero-enrolment schools declined from 12,954 to 5,663, while single-teacher schools reduced from 1.11 lakh to 1.01 lakh.

The report also recorded higher student retention at the middle and secondary levels. Middle-level retention increased from 82.8 percent in 2024-25 to 83.7 percent in 2025-26, while secondary-level retention rose from 47.2 percent to 51.9 percent. However, retention at the foundational and preparatory stages declined slightly after recording improvements over the previous three academic years.

Inputs from India Today

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