Uttar Pradesh Govt Rolls Out Pairing Of NEP 2020 Schools; More Than 10,000 Institutions To Be Integrated

Morning used to be a mad rush to school for Amit, a 2nd class student of a government primary school in the Kakori block in Lucknow on the city's outskirts. Just 200 meters from his residence. 

 

Morning school hours are to be changed, courtesy of the Uttar Pradesh government's new school consolidation plan. Amit's school and a few schools are to be merged with a school in a neighbouring village two kilometers away.

 

Walkable distance, Amit confesses.

 

"Now my father will drop me at school on his scooter. The catch is he is not there always," he says.

 

Allahabad administration initiated a state program to "match" low-enrollment schools with a priority for sharing funds, enhancing infrastructure, and concordance with the vision of National Education Policy 2020.

 

The newly reactivated Allahabad High Court policy has resulted in the clustering of more than 10,000 of the 1.3 lakh state-owned primary schools, officials claim.

 

The school clustering concept is the grouping of small schools with less than 50 students and locating them close to the nearby existing schools to provide a localized learning environment.

 

"The idea is to bring teacher training, school infrastructure and other study material under one umbrella," Deepak Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary Basic Education, said in an interview with PTI. "These are more productive use of school infrastructure, smart class technology and material. It's a matter of envisioning a more rich, better learning environment for children." These are already in the process of being implemented in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh officials say that they are implementing tried models.

 

Kumar had termed the exercise a "transformational structural reform" that would lead to a decentralized network of rural schools. "Small schools were equated with teacher-student isolation. With twinning, we are attempting to introduce peer learning, good governance, and priority to quality education again," he added further.

The move has been made after a decline in the state government primary and upper primary schools post-Covid-19 pandemic.

 

A record 1.92 crore children had enrolled in the Basic Shiksha Parishad-run schools for the year 2022-23. It declined to 1.68 crore in 2023-24, and for 2024-25, it had declined to 1.48 crore.

 

In the ongoing 2025-26 session, the enrollment numbers are around a paltry 1 crore.

 

Deputy education department officers found that in such colleges where the enrollment and attendance are not good, there is a huge scope that students will dropout either mid-way through the academic session or session completion. 

 

This would be more students in a class enrolled by incorporating it in training. With more resources, not only will dropouts be less but it will also get added to school enrollments, officials affirm.

 

Recently, Allahabad High Court dismissed a string of writ petitions challenged against the government notifications of June 16 and 24, 2025.

 

Thepetitioners have also alleged that amalgamation would cause children to walk one kilometre to reach school, which would be in contravention of Article 21A of the Constitution and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009.