Over 1 lakh single-teacher schools in India catering to over 33 lakh students: Official data

NEW DELHI: Over 33 lakh students across the country are enrolled in more than 1 lakh single-teacher schools with Andhra Pradesh recording the highest number of such schools and Uttar Pradesh leading with the most number of student enrolments in them, according to official data.

According to the Ministry of Education's statistics, in the academic year 2024-25, there were 1,04,125 schools in India run by a single teacher each, and such schools catered to 33,76,769 students -- an average of about 34 students per school.

The Right To Education Act, 2009 mandates a pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) of 30:1 at the primary level (classes I-V) and 35:1 at the upper primary level (classes VI-VIII). The highest number of "single-teacher" schools in the country are in Andhra Pradesh, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Lakshadweep.

However, when it comes to student enrolment in schools with a single teacher, Uttar Pradesh tops the list, followed by Jharkhand, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. The number of single-teacher schools has decreased from 1,18,190 in 2022–23 to 1,10,971 in 2023–24, recording a drop of around six per cent.

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UTs have lower enrolment per school

"The government is on a mission to improve the learning outcomes and entail the best possible utilization of available resources by undertaking school mergers and consolidation of schools often called 'rationalisation of schools'," a senior official explained.

"Single-teacher schools hinder the teaching learning process and hence efforts are being made to redeploy teachers from schools with zero student enrolment to single-teacher schools to ensure optimal teacher availability," the official added.

Andhra Pradesh has 12,912 single-teacher schools, Uttar Pradesh 9,508, Jharkhand 9,1720, Maharashtra 8,152, Karnataka 7,349, Lakshadweep 7,217, Madhya Pradesh 7,217, West Bengal 6,482, Rajasthan 6,117, Chattisgarh 5,973 and Telangana (5,001). Delhi has nine single-teacher schools.

There are no single-teacher schools in the Union Territories of Puducherry, Ladakh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu and Chandigarh. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands have just four single-teacher schools.

In terms of student enrolments in single-teacher schools, Uttar Pradesh leads with 6,24,327 students taking lessons in such schools, followed by Jharkhand with 4,36,480 students, West Bengal 2,35,494, Madhya Pradesh 2,29,095, Karnataka 2,23,142, Andhra Pradesh 1,97,113, and Rajasthan 1,72,071, among others.

When it comes to average student enrolments per school, Chandigarh and Delhi have the highest number of students per school, at 1,222 and 808, respectively. Ladakh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Himachal Pradesh, on the other hand, have significantly lower enrolments per school, at 59, 70, 73, and 82, respectively.

"High number of students per school indicates optimum utilisation of school infrastructure and schools with low enrolments are currently being merged to ensure optimal utilisation," the official explained.