The academic year 2025–26 has seen a notable reduction in dropout rates across preparatory and secondary levels compared to previous years, according to the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2025-26 report on School Education in India released by the Education Ministry on Tuesday.
Dropout Rate Declines
At the preparatory level (Classes 3-5), the dropout rate declined from 2.3% in 2024-25 to 1.8% in 2025-26. At the secondary level (Classes 9-10), it dropped from 8.2% to 7.0%. This marks a significant improvement over the rates observed in 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25.
Schools with Zero Enrollment and Single Teachers
Of the 1,466,682 schools covered in the report, 5,663 have zero enrollment. West Bengal tops the chart with 4,133 schools having zero enrollments. In contrast, Chandigarh, Goa, Delhi, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, and Haryana have no schools with zero enrollment. Punjab has 19 schools with zero student enrollment and 53 teachers enrolled in those schools.
Additionally, 100,843 schools have single teachers. Andhra Pradesh leads with 16,357 such schools, followed by Jharkhand with 9,827.
Girls' Enrollment Ratio
Girls' enrollment ratio has marginally increased to 48.4% in 2025-26 from 48.3% in 2024-25, indicating a positive trend in female representation in schools.
Infrastructure and Accessibility
In 2025-26, 58.2% of schools were equipped with ramps and handrails, a rise from 54.9% in 2024-25, marking progress toward inclusive education for students with disabilities.
Access to internet facilities in schools increased considerably, with the percentage of schools having internet connectivity rising from 63.5% in 2024-25 to 67.4% in 2025-26. This highlights a growing focus on digital infrastructure.
The report states that 95.0% of schools are powered by electricity, 98.5% have girls’ toilets, and 97.2% have boys’ toilets. Handwashing facilities are available in 96.9% of schools, and access to safe drinking water has reached 99.5%.
Pupil-Teacher Ratio
The Pupil-Teacher Ratios (PTR) at the Foundational, Preparatory, Middle, and Secondary levels are now reported at 10, 12, 17, and 21, respectively. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommends a PTR of 30:1 at all levels for interactive learning.
According to the report, "It is observed that Chandigarh and Delhi have the highest number of students per school with PTR within the RTE norm, indicating optimum utilization of school infrastructure. On the other side, for states such as Ladakh, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya, students per school are significantly low, indicating a need for optimisation of schools’ infrastructure."
