NITI Aayog Report: India Loses 25 Schools a Day as Government School Enrollment Continues to Decline

According to a recent report by NITI Aayog, 25 schools are being shut down each day in India. Thus, there has been a noticeable reduction in student enrollment over the last decade. This trend can be linked to several reasons, such as the declining fertility rate.

During this time frame, the total number of government schools declined from 11.07 lakh in 2014-15 to 10.13 lakh in 2024-25. Moreover, there was a reduction in the number of government aided schools from 83,000 to 79,000. On the other hand, the number of private educational institutions increased from 2.88 lakh to 3.39 lakh.

As per the "School Education System in India: Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement" report by NITI Aayog, total school enrollment declined from 26.95 crore in 2014-15 to 24.69 crore in 2024-25. This is attributed to the school consolidation program, wherein nearby schools facing issues related to low student enrollment are merged together. 

Even though this is done in an attempt to optimise resource utilisation, it has raised concerns among education activists, who believe that it could lead to reduced enrollment in schools.

Dropout Rates Rise Beyond Primary Education

Retention ratios have emerged as yet another issue, especially in secondary education. While the dropout rate at the primary level is only 0.3 percent, the dropout rates for upper primary and secondary education are much higher, at 3.5 percent and 11.5 percent, respectively. The transition rate from upper primary to secondary education has also decreased significantly, from 91.58 percent in 2014-15 to 86.6 percent in 2024-25.

There are states such as Puducherry and Kerala that have exhibited high transition rates of 99.6 percent. However, other states such as Meghalaya, Bihar, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland have recorded lower transition rates.

School Mergers Raise Concerns Over Learning Outcomes

The report highlights major school mergers, particularly in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, where around 40,000 schools have been merged over the last ten years. This consolidation has implications for children's academic performance that go beyond enrollment numbers. 

It has been observed that many Class IX students face difficulties even with basic concepts such as percentages and fractions, apart from more complex topics like algebra and geometry.

This has become a cause for concern in the education sector because the findings suggest that students continue to struggle with learning fundamentals as they progress through their academic journey.