No teachers, toilets, water, power: Indian govt schools in deep crisis
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New Delhi: India’s government school system is facing a deep structural crisis, with thousands of schools functioning without students, teachers, toilets, water, electricity or even basic learning facilities, according to a damning new report released by NITI Aayog. The report, titled School Education System in India, paints a grim picture of collapsing educational standards, severe teacher shortages and rising student dropouts across several states.
The findings reveal that 7,993 schools across the country currently have zero student enrolment, exposing the alarming decay within sections of the public education system. West Bengal tops the list with 3,812 such schools, followed by Telangana with 2,245. The report also highlights widespread lack of basic infrastructure, with 14,505 schools operating without drinking water facilities and 59,829 schools lacking even handwashing systems. More than 51 per cent of schools reportedly do not have science laboratories.
The teacher crisis has emerged as another major concern. Around 1,04,125 schools are functioning with only a single teacher, with nearly 89 per cent of them located in rural areas. Jharkhand recorded a disastrous student-teacher ratio of 47:1, far above the recommended levels of 10:1 or 18:1. Massive teacher vacancies have been reported in Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, with Bihar alone reporting over 2.08 lakh vacant primary teacher posts.
The report further exposes the poor quality of teaching staff. Only 10 to 15 per cent of government school teachers could reportedly score even 60 per cent marks in the subjects they teach. In mathematics, merely two per cent of teachers managed to score above 70 per cent, while the national average stood at just 46 per cent.
Student dropout rates continue to surge after primary education. Secondary school dropout stands at 11.5 per cent nationally, with West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Assam performing worse than the national average. Bihar’s secondary dropout rate rose sharply from 2.98 per cent to 9.3 per cent, while Uttar Pradesh witnessed an increase from 0.52 per cent to 3 per cent.
The report also notes that nearly 14 per cent of teaching days are lost to surveys, elections and administrative work. It criticises India’s low public spending on education, which stands at only 4.6 per cent of GDP, significantly below countries like the United Kingdom and the United States at 5.9 per cent, and Germany and France at around 5.4 per cent. The report identifies Jharkhand, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir among the worst-performing regions, raising fresh concerns over the future of public education in India.
