भारत में हर दिन बंद हो रहे 25 स्कूल, 10 साल में 94,000 सरकारी स्कूलों में लगा ताला – india government schools closed in ten years education crisis report edmm
According to a recent report by NITI Aayog, 94,000 government schools have been closed across India in the last decade (10 years). These figures are shocking and highlight the many major challenges facing school education in rural India.
94,000 government schools closed in 10 years
In the last 10 years, an average of 25 schools have been closed every day in India. The largest number of these schools being closed are government schools, due to which there has been a huge decrease of 2.26 crores in the total number of admissions of children in schools.
According to the report of NITI Aayog, the number of government schools in the country was 11.07 lakh in the year 2014-15, which decreased to 10.13 lakh in the year 2024-25. During the same period, the number of government-aided schools also declined from 83,000 to 79,000. On the other hand, within the same 10 years the number of private schools has increased from 2.88 lakh to 3.39 lakh.
What is the reason for decreasing number of children?
The name of this report of NITI Aayog is ‘School Education System in India: Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement’. According to this, the total enrollment in schools of the country has decreased from 26.95 crore students in the year 2014-15 to 24.69 crore in the year 2024-25.
The main reasons for this decline in the report are the decline in the population of school-going children due to the declining fertility rate, merger of schools and the challenges of retaining children in school in higher classes.
Merger of schools: advantage or disadvantage?
Under the policy of ‘school consolidation’, the Central Government and NITI Aayog have merged neighboring schools with low student strength so that resources (such as buildings and teachers) can be used better. However, social workers working in the field of education say that due to this policy the admission of children has also decreased. When the neighborhood school is closed, many children (especially girls) stop going to school because of the increased distance.
Children dropping out of studies by the time they enter senior classes
The report expresses deep concern over students leaving school after the primary level. The dropout rate in primary classes (1st to 5th) is very low i.e. only 0.3%. But, in upper primary (6th to 8th) it increases to 3.5%. Whereas by the time it reaches the secondary level (9th and 10th), it reaches a dangerous level of 11.5%.
Apart from this, the rate of students going from class 8th to class 9th has also decreased from 91.58% in the year 2014-15 to 86.6% in the year 2024-25. While in states like Puducherry and Kerala this rate is 99.6%, it is much lower in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
The report states that the largest scale of school mergers in the last decade has taken place in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, where around 40,000 schools have been closed or merged in both the states combined.
9th class students have problems even in basic mathematics
The report has also raised questions on the level of education (learning gaps) of children at the secondary level. The investigation found that many Class 9 students are not only struggling with difficult subjects like Algebra and Geometry, but they are also having trouble understanding basic concepts like percentages, fractions and ratios. It is clear from this that the shortcomings of the initial classes continue till the senior classes.
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