Nibeditaa SpeaksA country aspiring to become a global knowledge economy cannot afford classrooms where children attend school but struggle to read. Nor can India reap the benefits of its demographic dividend if neighbourhood schools are steadily losing teachers, infrastructure and public confidence. The crisis in government education is no longer merely about access. It is about whether the state can guarantee every child a meaningful education, irrespective of where they live or what their parents earn.
India has made considerable progress in bringing children into schools. The more difficult task is ensuring that they learn, remain in education and emerge equipped to participate in the country’s social and economic life. Unless this gap is addressed urgently, the promise of universal education will remain an administrative achievement rather than a social transformation.
The crisis behind the numbers
According to NITI Aayog’s May 2026 report, School Education System in India, the number of government schools declined from 11.07 lakh in 2014–15 to 10.13 lakh in 2024–25—a reduction of approximately 94,000 institutions. The report associates this decline with the consolidation and rationalisation of schools.
Consolidation is not inherently undesirable. Larger schools may offer better facilities, more teachers and broader academic opportunities. But administrative efficiency cannot come at the cost of children’s access to education. In tribal settlements, mountain communities and the riverine islands of the Sundarbans, a school merger can mean longer journeys across difficult terrain, rivers and weather conditions that make regular attendance uncertain.
The real measure of reform, therefore, is not how many schools have been merged but whether children can reach their new schools safely and consistently. Any rationalisation policy that overlooks geography, transport and parental concerns risks excluding precisely those children who depend most heavily on public education.
The learning crisis is even more revealing. ASER 2024 found that 98.1% of rural children aged 6–14 were enrolled in school. Yet only 23.4% of government-school students in Class III could read a Class II-level text. Although this represents an improvement from 16.3% in 2022, the gap between enrolment and learning remains deeply troubling.
The latest UDISE+ figures for 2025–26 also record 1,00,843 single-teacher schools across the system. A national teaching workforce exceeding one crore offers little reassurance when teachers remain unevenly distributed. A single teacher cannot reasonably be expected to manage several grades, supervise meals, complete administrative work and provide individual attention to children at different stages of learning.
When foundational reading and numeracy are neglected, the consequences compound with every passing year. Children move into higher classes without mastering basic concepts, turning classrooms into spaces of copying and memorisation rather than understanding.
Why access alone cannot deliver education
Government initiatives such as PM POSHAN and the Right to Education Act remain indispensable. School meals help address nutritional needs, while free and compulsory elementary education protects children from exclusion on financial grounds. These measures must be strengthened, not diminished.
But a meal cannot compensate for a missing teacher. Free tuition does not eliminate transport costs, household responsibilities or the economic pressures that force adolescents to abandon their studies. Nor does formal registration guarantee a functioning institution.
The Right to Education Act’s central entitlement covers children aged 6–14. It does not, by itself, guarantee free education across the entire three-to-18 age group. The transition into adolescence consequently requires greater attention, particularly for children at risk of dropping out after elementary school.
India must also distinguish between regulatory compliance and educational quality. A school code does not automatically establish legal recognition, and minimum teacher qualifications cannot substitute for classroom preparation, mentoring, teaching materials and adequate staffing. Children who begin learning in a language they barely understand need teachers equipped to bridge that gap.
These weaknesses can trigger a damaging cycle. Families who lose confidence in government schools seek fee-charging alternatives where they can afford them. Declining public-school enrolment may then become a justification for further staff reductions or consolidation. The resulting erosion of trust makes the public system even less attractive.
The state cannot transfer its responsibility to private providers. A functioning public-school system is essential precisely because millions of families cannot purchase an alternative.
What India’s better-performing states can teach us
The situation is not without hope. ASER 2024 found that 66% of Class V students in government schools in Punjab and 65.9% in Mizoram could read a Class II-level text. Kerala recorded a substantial recovery in Class III reading, while Sikkim showed improvement in Class VIII reading.
These achievements should be understood as evidence of specific progress, not blanket endorsements of entire education systems. They nevertheless demonstrate that public education can improve when policy translates into classroom practice.
Kerala’s KITE programme offers another important lesson. Digital infrastructure becomes educationally meaningful when accompanied by teacher training, learning content and maintenance support. Technology is not a substitute for good teaching; it is an instrument that must be supported by institutions and people who know how to use it.
India’s challenge is to replicate effective practices without reducing reform to the installation of equipment, the construction of buildings or the announcement of new schemes. The objective must be better learning, supported by dependable infrastructure and capable teachers.
Citizen accountability must become institutional reform
The public-school debate has also gained visibility through citizen-led scrutiny. The Cockroach Janata Party’s School Theek Karo campaign, launched on August 15, 2026, under Abhijeet Dipke, brought attention to broken toilets, damaged classrooms and concerns about meal hygiene through citizen audits and videos.
Beginning in Maharashtra, the campaign expanded to states including Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Its central question is both simple and powerful: would public officials accept these conditions for their own children?
Some administrative responses followed amid the campaign and wider public pressure. Haryana released ₹130 crore for approximately 2,800 identified development works, while Uttar Pradesh issued a 14-point checklist covering infrastructure and cleanliness. In Rajasthan, ₹18 lakh was approved for a replacement school building at Rampura Kanwarpura near Jaipur, where demolition of the unsafe structure began in September.
However, these developments require careful interpretation. Some funding and repair commitments predated the campaign, so the timing of an intervention does not establish that citizen pressure alone caused it. The campaign’s defensible contribution is to make neglected conditions more visible and increase pressure for accountability.
Visibility, however, is only the beginning. The test of success is whether repairs are completed, toilets remain usable, buildings are safe and children attend school more regularly. Citizen scrutiny should become a structured part of school governance, with published findings, clear complaint procedures and time-bound responses. Such oversight must also protect children’s privacy and avoid disrupting classroom learning.
The 2030 deadline demands more than enrolment drives
The National Education Policy 2020 sets a target of 100% gross enrolment from preschool through secondary education by 2030. Yet UDISE+ 2025–26 reports a secondary gross enrolment ratio of 71.7%, using the Classes IX–XII structure under the policy.
The distance between ambition and reality is substantial. Gross enrolment ratio measures enrolment at a particular educational stage against the population in the corresponding official age group, regardless of students’ actual ages. It is therefore not proof of universal attendance or effective learning.
India already has many of the policy instruments required to address this challenge. The NEP emphasises accessible schools, trained teachers, transport and hostels, and tracking children who leave the system. NITI Aayog’s 2026 roadmap adds early-warning mechanisms, transition tracking, bridge courses and timely scholarships.
What remains uncertain is not the need for action but the consistency of its implementation.
A child who stops attending school should not disappear into a database. Authorities must identify the child, establish why attendance has ceased and provide an appropriate response. The reasons may include migration, financial hardship, inaccessible schools, learning difficulties or family responsibilities. Each requires a different intervention.
Another enrolment campaign without follow-up will produce another reassuring set of numbers without necessarily changing children’s lives.
Ten commitments to rebuild public education
India needs a time-bound public education mission that turns policy declarations into measurable obligations.
First, protect neighbourhood access. Before merging schools, states should publish destination-school details, journey times, transport arrangements and consultation records. Consolidation must not make education unsafe or inaccessible.
Second, end avoidable dependence on single teachers. School-level vacancies should be disclosed, and recruitment and deployment should reflect actual classroom needs. Remote schools require incentives, housing and professional support to attract and retain teachers.
Third, put foundational learning first. Daily reading and numeracy sessions, regular individual assessments and small-group support must become routine. Progress towards NIPUN Bharat’s 2026–27 target should be independently assessed and published annually, without humiliating children or encouraging manipulation of scores.
Fourth, strengthen early childhood education. Anganwadi centres and schools need coordinated plans, trained preschool educators and play-based learning. Children should be able to develop understanding in their home languages while receiving a structured introduction to additional languages.
Fifth, guarantee functional infrastructure. Independent audits should cover structural safety, drinking water, sanitation, electricity and accessibility. Repair deadlines, responsible officials and maintenance funding must be publicly disclosed. Schools must also be prepared for heatwaves, floods and cyclones.
Sixth, make attendance affordable. Nutritious meals, health checks and timely entitlements must be complemented by transport assistance and support for essential learning expenses. Vulnerable adolescents should receive assistance before financial pressures force them out of education. Children with disabilities need appropriate educators, assistive devices and accessible transport.
Seventh, follow children through educational transitions. Named officials should investigate persistent absence and failed transitions into Classes VI, IX and XI. Migrant children need coordinated support across states, while bridge courses and re-entry procedures should avoid unnecessary documentation barriers.
Eighth, enable teachers to teach. District teacher-education institutions should provide classroom mentoring and professional development. Teachers need adequate materials, fair transfers and administrative support. Digital learning must be accompanied by training and safeguards for children’s data.
Ninth, give communities meaningful oversight. School management committees should be equipped to examine budgets, facilities and learning support. Regular public hearings, time-bound grievance redressal and structured citizen audits can make accountability a continuing responsibility rather than a periodic controversy.
Tenth, finance the guarantee and verify outcomes. The Centre and states should establish a transparent financing schedule towards the NEP’s six-per-cent-of-GDP education spending goal. Funding should reflect deprivation and difficult geography, while independent reviews in 2028 and 2030 assess expenditure, staffing, learning and completion rates.
These commitments will succeed only if responsibility is clearly assigned. When one authority recruits teachers, another repairs buildings and a third releases funds, the headteacher cannot be expected to compensate for every institutional failure. Coordination must be matched by accountability at each level of government.
A classroom is a promise the Republic must keep
India’s public-school crisis is serious, but it is not irreversible. The country has committed teachers, functioning institutions and evidence that learning outcomes can recover. What is missing is the assurance that these strengths will be available to every child, rather than determined by geography, household income or administrative convenience.
The school is where the promise of citizenship becomes tangible. It is experienced in a teacher who arrives, a safe classroom, a meal served with dignity, a book a child can read and a question that receives an answer.
By 2030, India must be able to offer more than enrolment statistics, digital equipment and ambitious policy documents. It must guarantee that children can reach school safely, learn the fundamentals, continue through adolescence and complete their education with confidence.
A nation cannot build its future by asking children to make do with a failing present. Fixing the public school is not simply an education-sector reform; it is an investment in equality, opportunity and the credibility of the Republic itself.
The author has been the Pro Vice Chancellor of Adamas and Techno India Universities, Vice President of Washington University of Science & Technology, and the Dean of Amity and Symbiosis Universities earlier.
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