Enrolments in schools decrease while number of teachers rise: Education Ministry

New Delhi: Continuing a trend, data from the education ministry showed that compared to 2023-24, there had been a dip of over 11 lakh in enrolment in schools across all levels.

The ministry’s UDISE+ data, released Thursday, showed that enrolment from pre-primary to higher-secondary levels across both government and private schools fell from 24.8 crore in 2023-24 to 24.69 crore in 2024-25.  

Ministry officials attributed the drop to a fall in fertility rates, and said the numbers were below par since they were still based on the 2011 Census data.

“We believe that when the Census exercise begins in March, this is set to improve,” said an official. 

The total number of schools also fell in comparison to the previous year. While there were a total of 14,71,891 schools in 2023-24, there are now 14,71,473.

Some of these were government schools that had seen mergers, said officials, including over 100 schools in Uttar Pradesh alone.

Overall, the number of government schools fell from 10.18 lakh in 2023-24 to 10.13 lakh in 2024-25.

On the other hand, the number of private schools increased from 3.31 lakh in 2023-24 to 3.79 lakh in 2024-25. 

The number of teachers, meanwhile, saw an increase — from 98.07 lakh in 2023-24 to 1.01 crore in 2024-25. As a result, the pupil-to-teacher ratio — the number of students per teacher — saw a marginal improvement.

At the primary level (Classes 1-5), it dropped from 21 in 2023-24 to 20 in 2024-25, while at the upper primary level (Classes 6-8), it went down from 18 in 2023-24 to 17 in 2024-25.

At the secondary level (Classes 9-10), it fell from 16 in 2023-24 to 15 in 2024-25. At the higher secondary level (Classes 11-12) it saw a drop from 24 in 2023-24 to 23 in 2024-25. 

The number of girl students in the primary to higher secondary levels saw an increase of over 5% since last year — from 11.32 crore in 2023-24 to 11.93 crore now.