Close to 40 lakh students are enrolled in 1 lakh single-teacher schools: UDISE Plus 2023-24

NEW DELHI: Nearly 40 lakh students are studying in over 1.1 lakh schools with only a single teacher, as per the UDISE Plus 2023-24 data, released by the education ministry. This means that, on an average, one teacher is teaching 36 students in these schools.

Moreover, there are 31,981 teachers across India who are employed in schools without a single student, the data revealed. Additionally, 12,964 schools in India have no students.

The Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) Plus is India’s only national-level public database on school education; it is maintained by the education ministry. The latest UDISE 2023-24 report was released earlier this week.

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UDISEPlus: Single-teacher schools

According to the UDISE Plus 2023-24 report, 1,10,971 schools across India have only one teacher each.

A large majority of these schools are in Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. States such as Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and West Bengal have over 5,000 single-teacher schools each.

States with most single-teacher schools

The data showed that nearly 40 lakh students are studying in these single-teacher schools. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand accounted for the most number of students in these single-teacher schools.

Bihar, which has relatively fewer single-teacher schools at around 2,000, has nearly 3 lakh students enrolled in them. This is much higher than Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra which have over 8,000 schools each but fewer students enrolled in them.

States with most student enrolment in single-teacher schools

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 mandates a pupil-to-teacher ratio of 1:30, which means that schools should have at least one teacher for 30 students or less.

UDISE Plus 2023-24: Zero-enrolment schools

The UDISE 2023-24 data also revealed that there are 12,964 schools across India that have no students enrolled.

West Bengal has the highest number of such schools with over 3,000. Rajasthan, Telangana also have over 2,000 schools each that have no students enrolled.

An analysis of the UDISE data had shown a drop in school enrolment with over 37 lakh fewer students being enrolled in schools in 2023-24.

States with most schools with zero enrolment

The UDISE data also revealed that a striking 31,981 teachers are employed in these schools with no student enrolment, at a time when there are over 1 lakh schools across the country with only a single teacher.

The highest number of teachers employed in these zero-enrolment schools are in West Bengal which saw a cash-for-school-job scam which caused the Calcutta High Court to annul over 24,000 school teacher appointments. The former West Bengal school education minister Partha Chatterjee had also resigned over corruption accusations.

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Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana also have more than 2,000 teachers working in schools with no students.

States with most teachers in schools with no enrolment

The UDISE Plus data also revealed that, on an average, there are only seven teachers and 169 students in schools across the country. Meghalaya (four) and Chhattisgarh (five) had the lowest average of teachers in a school.

Meghalaya (72) and Mizoram (75) recorded the lowest average of students enrolled in a school.