Parallel to the increasing attraction towards government jobs, the condition of government schools is continuously deteriorating. Shocking facts have emerged from the latest UDISE+ data, which were presented in Parliament. According to the report, approximately 9900 government primary and upper primary schools were closed in the last year.
According to the information provided in the Lok Sabha, the total number of government primary and upper primary schools in the country was over 8.89 lakh in the financial year 2024-25. However, this number has decreased to 8.80 lakh by the financial year 2025-26, which directly means that 9900 government schools were closed in the past year.
The data shows that Meghalaya recorded the highest decline, where the number of government primary and upper primary schools decreased by more than two thousand. Additionally, cases of closing thousands of schools have been reported in states like Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
It is important to note that while there has been a decrease in the number of schools in many states, an increase has also been observed in some other regions. For example, there has been a change in the number of government schools in Bihar, and a slight increase in the number of schools has also been registered in Chhattisgarh.
Amidst all these circumstances, the most prominent question is what is the real reason for such a large-scale closure of schools. The question was raised in Parliament whether so many schools were closed due to a decrease in student enrollment. However, the Ministry of Education has not clarified how many of the total closed schools were actually closed due to a drop in student numbers.
