India’s school education system now covers 24.72 crore students and 1.03 crore teachers across nearly 14.67 lakh schools, according to the UDISE+ 2025-26 report. The latest data points to progress in teacher availability, student retention and basic school infrastructure, but also shows that several gaps remain, particularly in secondary education, internet access and accessibility facilities.
The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) is the government’s nationwide school education data system. The 2025-26 report tracks enrolment, teachers, dropout and transition rates, school infrastructure, gender participation and social inclusion.
Five numbers in particular offer a quick picture of where Indian school education stands: 24.72 crore students, 1.03 crore teachers, a 24:1 pupil-teacher ratio, a 7% secondary dropout rate and 67.4% internet connectivity among schools.
24.72 Crore Students, 1.03 Crore Teachers
India had more than 24.72 crore students enrolled in schools during 2025-26, with around 1.03 crore teachers working across nearly 14.67 lakh schools.
The overall pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) stood at 24:1. At the individual stages, the ratio was 10:1 at the Foundational stage, 12:1 at the Preparatory stage, 17:1 at the Middle stage and 21:1 at the Secondary stage.
A low PTR may imply that there are fewer students per teacher and may be creating conducive circumstances for classroom interactions and individual attention. However, just having a low PTR doesn't imply that there is an improvement in learning.
The number of one-teacher schools has also reduced by 3% to 1,00,843 in 2025-26. The number of zero enrolment schools has gone down by 29% to 5,663 compared to last year.
While attendance is good in the initial levels of schooling, the figures are not promising in secondary level schools.
The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for Secondary stage was 71.7% compared to 89.6% for Middle stage.
Secondary stage also had the highest dropout ratio out of all stages reported in the report, which was 7%.
The dropout ratio was 1.8% for the Preparatory stage and 3.6% for the Middle stage. While it seems to be improving on the latest figures compared to 2022-23, retaining students throughout secondary school level is quite a problem.
The retention ratio stood at 98.5% for the Foundational stage, 91.1% for the Preparatory stage, 83.7% for the Middle stage and 51.9% for the Secondary stage.
The transition ratios were relatively high with 99.2% students moving from Foundational to Preparatory stage, 93.8% moving from Preparatory to Middle and 88.3% from Middle to Secondary.
1 in 3 schools still without internet
Digital connectivity has improved, but access remains far from universal. The report shows that 67.4% of schools had internet facilities in 2025-26. In other words, around one in three schools still did not have internet connectivity.
Computer availability was slightly higher at 69.9%. The gap is particularly notable as digital tools become increasingly important for teaching, access to educational resources and administrative work.
Basic infrastructure, meanwhile, has reached a much wider share of schools. Electricity was available in 95% of schools, while 99.5% had access to safe drinking water.
Girls' toilets were available in 98.5% of schools and boys' toilets in 97.2%. Handwashing facilities were available in 96.9% of schools, while 90.5% had libraries.
Accessibility remains a concern
One such infrastructure gap is accessibility. Just 58.2% of schools possessed ramps with handrails, thus pointing out that many schools still lack even basic access facility.
This becomes particularly important for children with special needs who may need physical accessibility to be able to enter the classroom or other parts of the school campus.
The UDISE+ data shows the ongoing efforts towards inclusion. For example, girls were 48.4% of total student enrollment, and women made up 54.9% of the teaching faculty.
OBC students constituted 44.9% of total enrollment, followed by General category students at 27.5%, Scheduled Castes at 17.7%, and Scheduled Tribes at 10%.
Decline in zero-enrollment schools
Another change pointed out in the recent data is the decline in zero-enrollment schools. Their number fell by 29% in the span from 2024-25 to 5,663. At the same time, the number of single-teacher schools fell to 1,00,843.
These trends mean efforts to match schools, teachers, and available resources to the number of pupils. At the same time, the existence of more than one lakh single-teacher schools means that there is still a problem with teacher distribution in some parts of the country.
