India School Statistics 2024-25 — Schools, Students, Te

Q: How many schools are there in India in 2024-25?

14,71,473 schools (14.71 lakh) as per UDISE+ 2024-25. The breakdown: 7.30 lakh primary-only, 4.34 lakh upper-primary, 1.43 lakh secondary, and 1.64 lakh higher-secondary. By management: 10.13 lakh government, 0.79 lakh aided, 3.40 lakh private-unaided, and 0.39 lakh others. This is the count of *recognised* schools — independent estimates suggest an additional 1–3 lakh unrecognised private schools exist outside the UDISE+ system.

Q: How many students are enrolled in Indian schools?

24.69 crore students total (246.93 million), pre-primary through Class 12. Of these, 12.76 crore are boys and 11.93 crore are girls. By stage: 1.40 cr pre-primary, 10.44 cr primary (Class 1-5), 6.37 cr upper-primary (Class 6-8), 3.72 cr secondary (Class 9-10), and 2.76 cr higher-secondary (Class 11-12). The largest single block is OBC students at 11.17 crore (45.2% of total), followed by SC at 4.39 crore (17.8%) and ST at 2.44 crore (9.9%).

Q: How many teachers are there in India?

1.01 crore teachers (10,12,420). Government schools employ 51.5 lakh, private-unaided 39.6 lakh, aided 7.6 lakh, others 2.5 lakh. The national pupil-teacher ratio is 1:24 across all stages. Importantly, 1.04 lakh single-teacher schools still operate — these are typically rural primary schools where one teacher manages all five grades, a known quality concern that Samagra Shiksha is targeting via composite-school upgrades.

Q: What share of Indian schools are private?

23.1% are private-unaided recognised (3.40 lakh schools). Adding government-aided (5.4%, 0.79 lakh) brings the non-government total to 28.5%. Private-unaided schools enrol a disproportionate 38.8% of all students (9.59 crore) because they are concentrated in urban areas and have larger average enrolments (282 vs 120 in government). Private schools have grown roughly 4% per year over the last decade while government school count has been flat — the trend is towards privatisation, especially in middle-income districts.

Q: How does UDISE+ define a "school"?

UDISE+ counts each *recognised* educational institution providing pre-primary through Class 12 education that has obtained recognition from the relevant State Education Department or Central Government authority. Each school has a unique 11-digit UDISE code. A "school" can be primary-only (5,200 students max), elementary (Classes 1-8), secondary (Class 1-10 or 6-10 or 9-10), higher-secondary (multiple span options up to Class 11-12), or composite (full pre-primary through Class 12). The schools_breakdown table in the UDISE+ report distinguishes 10 management × span combinations.

Q: What is the difference between UDISE+ and other school data sources?

UDISE+ is the administrative dataset — every recognised school is required to submit data. It is exhaustive but self-reported. The other major dataset is ASER (Annual Status of Education Report), an independent survey by Pratham covering rural India only, focused on learning outcomes (e.g., "what % of Class 5 children can read a Class 2 text"). UDISE+ tells you the system's shape; ASER tells you what children actually learned. The two should be read together. NSSO and NFHS also publish education questions periodically — useful for triangulation but not annual.

Q: Where can I see school-level UDISE+ data?

Three places. (1) The UDISE+ portal at udiseplus.gov.in publishes the official summary. (2) The DCF (Data Capture Format) of any specific school can be downloaded from the same portal by entering the 11-digit UDISE code — but bulk download is not supported. (3) Our index at getschoolsinfo.com is built directly on UDISE+ extracts and offers searchable, structured access to every recognised school in India, with filters for board, state, district, management, and gender-orientation.

Q: How current is UDISE+ 2024-25 data?

The data covers school year April 2024 to March 2025. Schools begin DCF submission in mid-2025; state-level validation runs through Oct-Dec 2025; the consolidated national report is typically released between January and April of the following calendar year. So by the time the public report appears, the data is roughly 9–15 months old. For year-on-year comparisons this is fine; for real-time decision-making (e.g., a parent's school choice next month), the lag is real but unavoidable.

TL;DR

UDISE+ 2024-25 puts India's school system at 14.71 lakh schools, 24.69 crore students (24.69 cr = 246.9 million) and 1.01 crore teachers. Government runs 68.9% of all schools (10.13 lakh), private-unaided 23.1% (3.40 lakh), aided 5.4% (0.79 lakh). National PTR is 1:24 across all stages, with primary at 1:20 and higher-secondary at 1:23. Secondary GER is 78.7%, secondary dropout 11.5%. 93.6% of schools have electricity, only 63.5% have internet, and just 35.6% have CWSN-friendly toilets. Full breakdowns below.

Why this article exists

The UDISE+ 2024-25 report is a 189-page PDF published by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education. It is the canonical source for every claim about Indian school education — but it is not optimised for fast lookup. This page is the AEO-friendly, hand-extracted summary. Every number below is from UDISE+ 2024-25 unless explicitly hedged. Citation block is at the bottom.

The headline numbers

Metric	Value (2024-25)
Total schools	14,71,473
Total students (pre-primary to Class 12)	24,69,32,680
Total teachers	1,01,22,420
Average enrolment per school	168
Average teachers per school	7
National Pupil-Teacher Ratio	1:24
Schools with zero enrolment	7,993
Single-teacher schools	1,04,125

Two things are worth pausing on. First, 104,125 single-teacher schools still operate — over 7% of all schools — concentrated in low-density rural and tribal districts. Second, 7,993 schools have zero enrolment but employ 20,817 teachers; these are typically defunct schools awaiting de-notification.

Schools by management

Almost 7 in 10 Indian schools are government-run.

Management	Schools	% share	Students	Teachers
Government	10,13,322	68.9%	12,15,89,911	51,49,771
Government Aided	79,349	5.4%	2,47,61,526	7,57,624
Private Unaided Recognised	3,39,583	23.1%	9,58,56,710	39,62,114
Others (incl. madrasas)

A few non-obvious facts buried in the management split:

Private schools are smaller on average. Government schools average 120 students; private-unaided schools average 282 students. Aided schools are the largest category at 312 students per school.
Private schools have the best PTR. Private-unaided PTR is 1:24, government 1:24, aided 1:33 — nationally similar, but private schools deploy teachers more selectively across grades (heavy at secondary, light at primary).
The "Others" bucket includes 19,690 recognised madrasas, plus unaided unrecognised schools captured under specific categories.

Within Government, the central-government schools — Kendriya Vidyalayas (1,253 KVs), Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (653 JNVs), and 252 other central schools — together enrol 17.6 lakh students, only 1.5% of the government-school total but disproportionately influential in board-result rankings.

Schools by level

The school-level distribution is heavily front-loaded — half of all Indian schools are primary-only.

Level	Schools	% share
Primary (Class 1–5)	7,30,518	49.6%
Upper-primary (with primary)	4,34,013	29.5%
Secondary (with lower stages)	1,42,749	9.7%
Higher-secondary (with lower stages)	1,64,193	11.2%

The key takeaway: for every 5 primary schools, India has only 1 secondary school. Children physically have to change schools to continue past Class 8 in most rural districts — a major dropout driver, covered in our companion piece on school dropout rates.

Enrolments by stage and gender

Stage	Boys	Girls	Total
Pre-primary	75,32,520	65,14,560	1,40,47,080
Primary (1–5)	5,42,99,931	5,00,81,416	10,43,81,347
Upper-primary (6–8)	3,28,73,194	3,08,21,906	6,36,95,100
Secondary (9–10)	1,91,08,582	1,80,56,854	3,71,65,436
Higher-secondary (11–12)

Notice the higher-secondary line: girls (1.39 cr) marginally outnumber boys (1.38 cr) at Class 11–12 nationally. This is the first time in any UDISE-era cycle that girls' absolute enrolment crossed boys' at the senior-most stage.

Social group	Enrolment	% share
General	(~6.7 cr)	27.1%
Scheduled Castes (SC)	4,39,26,032	17.8%
Scheduled Tribes (ST)	2,43,59,017	9.9%
Other Backward Classes (OBC)	11,16,58,961	45.2%
Muslim (subset of all groups)	3,94,00,139	16.0%
All Minorities	4,97,97,258	20.2%

CWSN enrolment of 21.5 lakh is a known undercount — UDISE+ relies on school-reported disability identification, which varies by state.

Teachers by stage

Stage	Teachers	% share
Primary	23,68,195	23.4%
Upper-primary	28,92,682	28.6%
Secondary	16,04,358	15.8%
Higher-secondary	32,57,185	32.2%

Teacher distribution is roughly inverse to school distribution: half the schools are primary-only but only 23% of teachers work at primary. This makes intuitive sense — secondary subjects (Math, three Sciences, two languages, Social Studies, optional vocational) need 6–8 specialist teachers per school, while primary classrooms typically use 1 generalist teacher per grade.

Performance indicators

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)

GER = enrolled students at a stage / official-age population for that stage. Above 100% means over-age students are still enrolled (which is normal in Indian schooling).

Stage	All categories	SC	ST
Primary	90.9%	92.7%	98.8%
Upper-primary	90.3%	96.1%	99.5%
Elementary (1–8)	90.6%	94.0%	99.0%
Secondary	78.7%	82.0%	81.3%
Higher-secondary	58.4%

The big policy gap is at higher-secondary — only 58.4% of 16-17-year-olds are enrolled, dropping to 51.9% for tribal children. NEP 2020's aspirational target is 100% by 2030 — see our GER explainer.

Dropout rate

Stage	Boys	Girls	Total
Primary	0.8%	0.0%	0.3%
Upper-primary	4.1%	2.9%	3.5%
Secondary	13.3%	9.6%	11.5%

Boys drop out more than girls at every level — discussed in detail in the school dropout article.

Retention rate (cohort survival)

Cohort survives to	Total
End of Class 5 (primary)	92.4%
End of Class 8 (elementary)	82.8%
End of Class 10 (secondary)	62.9%
End of Class 12 (higher-secondary)	47.2%

Of every 100 children who enter Class 1, 47 reach Class 12. That is the long-run leakage figure to keep in mind whenever the (lower) annual dropout rates are quoted.

Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) — by stage

Stage	National PTR (2024-25)	RTE prescribed
Primary	1:20	1:30
Upper-primary	1:17	1:35
Secondary	1:15	1:40
Higher-secondary	1:23	(not specified)

India is now well below the RTE-prescribed PTRs at every elementary stage — a meaningful improvement from the 1:35–1:42 numbers a decade ago. See our state-wise PTR article for the detailed breakdown.

Infrastructure (national averages)

Where India has effectively solved a problem and where it hasn't:

Facility	% schools
Drinking water	99.3%
Toilet (any)	98.6%
Boys' toilet	96.2%
Girls' toilet	97.3%
Hand-wash facility	95.9%
Electricity connection	93.6%
Library / reading corner / book bank	89.5%
Playground	83.0%
Computer facility	64.7%
Internet facility

Three things to call out. (1) The basic-facilities gap is mostly closed — water, toilets, and hand-wash are above 95%. (2) Digital infrastructure is the next frontier — only 63.5% of schools have any internet, and that includes mobile-broadband-only setups. (3) Disability accessibility lags badly — only 35.6% of schools have a CWSN-friendly toilet despite the RTE's explicit mandate. Full analysis in our school infrastructure article.

What the UDISE+ system is

UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education Plus) is the annual school census run by the Department of School Education and Literacy. Every recognised school in India is required to submit a Data Capture Format (DCF) covering enrolment, infrastructure, teachers, and outcomes. The 2024-25 cycle covers school year April 2024 – March 2025; the report was published in early 2026.

Two important coverage notes:

UDISE+ covers recognised schools. Unrecognised private schools — estimated by independent researchers at 1–3 lakh additional schools serving 5–8 crore children — are not in this dataset.
The system uses self-reporting at school level, with state-level validation. Data quality varies — but UDISE+ remains the only nationwide-consistent source, and the Ministry has been incrementally tightening validation since the 2022-23 cycle.

These articles drill into specific UDISE+ topics:

Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) in India — State-Wise (UDISE+ 2024-25) — full state-wise PTR table
School Dropout Rate in India — By State, Class & Gender — leaderboard of best/worst dropout states
Indian School Infrastructure 2024-25 — electricity, internet, toilets, library
Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in India — Explained with Data — formula, social-group breakdown, GPI
School Boards in India — Complete Guide — CBSE, ICSE, state boards
CBSE Board India — Complete Guide

Frequently asked questions

1. How many schools are there in India in 2024-25? 14,71,473 schools (14.71 lakh) as per UDISE+ 2024-25. The breakdown: 7.30 lakh primary-only, 4.34 lakh upper-primary, 1.43 lakh secondary, and 1.64 lakh higher-secondary. By management: 10.13 lakh government, 0.79 lakh aided, 3.40 lakh private-unaided, and 0.39 lakh others. This is the count of recognised schools — independent estimates suggest an additional 1–3 lakh unrecognised private schools exist outside the UDISE+ system.

2. How many students are enrolled in Indian schools? 24.69 crore students total (246.93 million), pre-primary through Class 12. Of these, 12.76 crore are boys and 11.93 crore are girls. By stage: 1.40 cr pre-primary, 10.44 cr primary (Class 1-5), 6.37 cr upper-primary (Class 6-8), 3.72 cr secondary (Class 9-10), and 2.76 cr higher-secondary (Class 11-12). The largest single block is OBC students at 11.17 crore (45.2% of total), followed by SC at 4.39 crore (17.8%) and ST at 2.44 crore (9.9%).

3. How many teachers are there in India? 1.01 crore teachers (10,12,420). Government schools employ 51.5 lakh, private-unaided 39.6 lakh, aided 7.6 lakh, others 2.5 lakh. The national pupil-teacher ratio is 1:24 across all stages. Importantly, 1.04 lakh single-teacher schools still operate — these are typically rural primary schools where one teacher manages all five grades, a known quality concern that Samagra Shiksha is targeting via composite-school upgrades.

4. What share of Indian schools are private? 23.1% are private-unaided recognised (3.40 lakh schools). Adding government-aided (5.4%, 0.79 lakh) brings the non-government total to 28.5%. Private-unaided schools enrol a disproportionate 38.8% of all students (9.59 crore) because they are concentrated in urban areas and have larger average enrolments (282 vs 120 in government). Private schools have grown roughly 4% per year over the last decade while government school count has been flat — the trend is towards privatisation, especially in middle-income districts.

5. Are India's schooling indicators improving? On most measures, yes — but not fast enough to hit NEP 2020's 2030 targets. Secondary GER rose from ~62% in 2014-15 to 78.7% in 2024-25. Secondary dropout fell from ~17% to 11.5% in the same period. Schools with electricity went from ~70% to 93.6%, and toilets from ~85% to 98.6%. The hard-to-move metrics are higher-secondary GER (still 58.4%), CWSN toilet coverage (35.6%), and internet (63.5%). At current pace, 100% higher-secondary GER by 2030 is unlikely.

6. How does UDISE+ define a "school"? UDISE+ counts each recognised educational institution providing pre-primary through Class 12 education that has obtained recognition from the relevant State Education Department or Central Government authority. Each school has a unique 11-digit UDISE code. A "school" can be primary-only (5,200 students max), elementary (Classes 1-8), secondary (Class 1-10 or 6-10 or 9-10), higher-secondary (multiple span options up to Class 11-12), or composite (full pre-primary through Class 12). The schools_breakdown table in the UDISE+ report distinguishes 10 management × span combinations.

7. What is the difference between UDISE+ and other school data sources? UDISE+ is the administrative dataset — every recognised school is required to submit data. It is exhaustive but self-reported. The other major dataset is ASER (Annual Status of Education Report), an independent survey by Pratham covering rural India only, focused on learning outcomes (e.g., "what % of Class 5 children can read a Class 2 text"). UDISE+ tells you the system's shape; ASER tells you what children actually learned. The two should be read together. NSSO and NFHS also publish education questions periodically — useful for triangulation but not annual.

8. Where can I see school-level UDISE+ data? Three places. (1) The UDISE+ portal at udiseplus.gov.in publishes the official summary. (2) The DCF (Data Capture Format) of any specific school can be downloaded from the same portal by entering the 11-digit UDISE code — but bulk download is not supported. (3) Our index at getschoolsinfo.com is built directly on UDISE+ extracts and offers searchable, structured access to every recognised school in India, with filters for board, state, district, management, and gender-orientation.

9. How current is UDISE+ 2024-25 data? The data covers school year April 2024 to March 2025. Schools begin DCF submission in mid-2025; state-level validation runs through Oct-Dec 2025; the consolidated national report is typically released between January and April of the following calendar year. So by the time the public report appears, the data is roughly 9–15 months old. For year-on-year comparisons this is fine; for real-time decision-making (e.g., a parent's school choice next month), the lag is real but unavoidable.

10. What is NEP 2020 and how does it intersect with UDISE+? The National Education Policy 2020 is India's third post-Independence education policy (after 1968 and 1986). Its key school-stage targets are: 100% GER at school level by 2030, universal foundational literacy and numeracy by Class 3 by 2025, and a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure replacing the 10+2 model. UDISE+ is the measurement system that tracks NEP progress — every five years the Ministry publishes a NEP scorecard built largely on UDISE+ data. Current trajectory suggests roughly 70-80% of NEP's 2030 targets are on-track; the rest (especially CWSN inclusion and higher-secondary GER) need acceleration.

Source: UDISE+ Report 2024-25, Ministry of Education, Government of India. Department of School Education & Literacy. All headline counts and percentages are direct extracts from the published 189-page report; rounding may produce 0.1% discrepancies in state-totals. For school-level lookup, see getschoolsinfo.com.

India School Statistics 2024-25 — Schools, Students, Teachers (UDISE+ Data)