UDISE 2025-26 Report: Government school enrolment falls, private schools record strong growth

Enrolment in government schools fell by nearly 86 lakh between 2023-24 and 2025-26 while private unaided recognised schools added more than 88 lakh students during the same period, according to the UDISE 2025-26 report released by the Ministry of Education. UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education Plus) is the Centre's official digital database for the education sector. Maintained by the Ministry of Education, it collates real-time statistics on school infrastructure, student enrolment, and teacher metrics.

The total enrolment from foundational to secondary level stood at 24.72 crore in 2025-26, compared with 24.80 crore in 2023-24 - a decline of about 8.26 lakh. But enrolment in government schools fell from 12.75 crore to 11.89 crore, while for private unaided recognised schools it rose from 9 crore to 9.89 crore, according to the report.

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The number of schools declined marginally from 14.72 lakh to 14.67 lakh, but the teacher base rose from 98.08 lakh to 1.03 crore (1,02,73,020), improving the overall pupil-teacher ratio from 25 to 24. Zero-enrolment schools fell from 12,954 to 5,663, while single-teacher schools declined from 1.11 lakh to 1.01 lakh.

The academic year 2025-26 has shown a positive trend in student retention at the middle and secondary levels, increasing from 82.8 per cent (2024-25) to 83.7 per cent (2025-26) at the middle level and from 47.2 per cent (2024-25) to 51.9 per cent (2025-26) at the secondary level, the report said. A marginal decline was observed at the foundational and preparatory levels in 2025-26, following three consecutive years of improvement from 2022-23 to 2024-25.