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More than 65,000 government schools in India have less than 10 students, with 5,149 of them recording zero enrollment in 2024-25, Education Ministry data shows.
Education Ministry data shows zero enrollment in 5,149 schools in 2024-25. (Symbolic Image/Getty)
According to data released by the Education Ministry, more than 65,000 government schools across India currently have less than 10 students enrolled, while 5,149 schools have reported zero enrollment during the 2024-25 academic year.
These figures highlight the growing gap between school infrastructure and actual student attendance in many parts of the country. Data compiled under the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) shows that there has been a sharp increase in schools with extremely low or no enrollment in recent years.
A significant regional imbalance has also emerged. More than 70 per cent of schools with no students are located in Telangana and West Bengal, indicating that the problem is concentrated in a few states rather than being spread evenly across the country.
The data shows that the number of government schools with zero or less than 10 students has increased by 24 per cent in just two years. In 2022-23, there were 52,309 such schools, this number will increase to 65,054 by 2024-25. These institutions now constitute 6.42 percent of all government schools in the country.
Despite low enrolment, staffing levels remain high. The ministry said that during the same period, more than 1.44 lakh teachers were deployed in schools with minimum or zero students. This has raised concerns over teacher deployment, administrative planning and efficient use of public resources.
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In response to questions raised by MPs Karti P. Chidambaram and Amarinder Singh Raja Waring in the Lok Sabha, the ministry clarified that education is a subject in the concurrent list of the Constitution. As a result, the responsibility of running schools and appointing teachers lies with the state governments and union territory administrations.
The Center said it supports states through the Samagra Shiksha Yojana, which aims to improve infrastructure, maintain student-teacher ratio and strengthen the overall school education system.
December 23, 2025, 08:42 IST
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