Ensuring equity amid India’s educational progress

Why in the News

The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2025-26 report records notable progress across India’s school education system. Progress is recorded in gross enrolment, student retention, dropout reduction, teacher availability and educational infrastructure. The same report records that regional and social disparities persist in access, resources, learning opportunities and educational outcomes. Differences in gross enrolment ratios, dropout rates, pupil teacher ratios and infrastructure availability now separate States and social groups from one another rather than separating India from an earlier baseline. What is contested is whether an improving national average can be read as equitable, inclusive and quality education.

What is the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+)?

1. A school level administrative database: UDISE+ is the annual data system that collects information from every recognised school in the country, managed by the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education.
2. Scale of the 2025-26 round: The report covers 1.47 million schools, 240 million students and 10.2 million teachers.
3. What it measures: It records enrolment, retention, teacher deployment and school infrastructure, reported down to the district and school level.
4. Why the numbers matter: The database is the official basis on which school education allocations are made and progress is monitored.

What is the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)?

1. Enrolment measured against an age group: GER is total enrolment at a school stage expressed as a percentage of the population in the official age group for that stage.
2. Why a value above 100 is possible: Enrolment of under age and over age children pushes the ratio past 100 without meaning that every eligible child of that age is in school.

What is the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR)?

1. Students carried by each teacher: PTR is the number of enrolled students per teacher at a given school stage, so a higher value means each teacher carries a larger class load.

What is the Gender Parity Index?

1. Girls’ enrolment measured against boys’: The index is the ratio of female to male enrolment at a school stage, and a value above one shows more girls enrolled than boys.

What is Aadhaar seeding of student records?

1. Linking an enrolment record to a unique identity number: Seeding attaches a student’s Aadhaar number to the school record, which is how duplicate and inactive enrolments are removed from the count.

Which States lead and lag on enrolment records and school profile?

1. Aadhaar seeding of enrolled students: Andhra Pradesh leads at 99.6 percent, followed by Chandigarh at 99 percent. Meghalaya records the lowest rate at 35 percent against a national average of 90.2 percent.
2. Share of schools and enrolment: Uttar Pradesh accounts for the highest share of both schools and student enrolment. Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh have the lowest shares of schools relative to enrolment, which produces higher student school ratios.
3. Composition of schools by stage: West Bengal records the highest proportion of foundational and preparatory schools at 79 percent and among the lowest secondary schools at 11 percent. Chandigarh is the reverse, with 83 percent secondary schools and 5 percent foundational and preparatory schools.
4. Average enrolment per school: Chandigarh registers the highest at 1,194, followed by Delhi at 788. Ladakh records the lowest at 64, which marks the spread in school size across the country.

How is enrolment distributed across social groups?

1. Regional concentration of social groups: Chandigarh and Delhi have the highest proportions of General category students. Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Ladakh have high proportions of Scheduled Tribe enrolment.
2. Concentration of Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Classes enrolment: Punjab records one of the highest shares of Scheduled Caste enrolment. Other Backward Classes representation is particularly high in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
3. Gross enrolment by social group at the national level: Other Backward Classes record the highest at 49 percent, followed by General at 27 percent, Scheduled Castes at 17 percent and Scheduled Tribes at 10 percent.
4. Enrolment set against population: Those figures diverge from the corresponding population of each social group, which is where the enrolment gap between groups becomes visible.
5. Girls ahead of boys on participation: The Gender Parity Index across all school levels shows higher girls’ enrolment and participation than boys in most States and Union Territories.
6. Minority enrolment: Students from minority communities account for more than 20 percent of enrolment, with Muslims and Parsis among the major minority groups.

How far apart are States on teacher availability?

1. The spread tracks population density: PTR registers lowest in Union Territories and highest in densely populated States.
2. The secondary stage carries the heaviest load: Foundational, preparatory and middle stage ratios are generally lower than the secondary ratio across most States.
3. The highest secondary ratios: Jharkhand records the highest secondary PTR at 43, followed by Uttar Pradesh, which signifies a heavy workload on each teacher.
4. The lowest secondary ratios: Sikkim records the lowest secondary PTR at 6, followed by Ladakh.

What do the stage wise gross enrolment figures show?

1. Foundational stage: Meghalaya records the highest at 131, followed by Mizoram. Bihar records the lowest at 24, preceded by Uttar Pradesh.
2. Preparatory stage: Meghalaya again records the highest at 171, followed by Manipur. Gujarat records the lowest at 74, preceded by Bihar.
3. Middle stage: Chandigarh and Meghalaya record the highest at 118, followed by Delhi. Bihar records the lowest at 70, preceded by Nagaland.
4. Secondary stage: Chandigarh registers the highest at 109, followed by Goa. Bihar records the lowest at 48, preceded by Nagaland.
5. The pattern across stages: One large State sits at or near the bottom at every stage, which concentrates the enrolment deficit rather than spreading it evenly across the country.

What does the dropout data show about retention at each stage?

1. Why the indicator matters: The dropout rate determines attainment and the transition rate to the next stage of schooling.
2. Preparatory stage: Bihar accounts for the highest preparatory dropout rate at 7.9 percent, followed by Meghalaya. Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra do not report dropout at this stage.
3. Middle stage: Bihar records the highest middle level dropout rate at 9 percent, followed by Uttar Pradesh. Chandigarh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh register no dropouts at this stage.
4. Secondary stage: Ladakh records the highest secondary dropout rate at 14.8 percent, followed by Karnataka. West Bengal records the lowest at 1.5 percent, preceded by Telangana.

Why has improved access not produced regular attendance?

1. A school within reach is now the norm: Access to schooling has improved significantly over the years, and most children now have a school at a suitable distance.
2. Terrain still decides regularity: Remote, hilly, tribal and border areas still have limited schools and transport facilities, so children there face greater difficulty attending regularly. Eg. Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand, Ganjam and Kandhamal districts of Odisha, Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, and Palghar district of Maharashtra.
3. Social position compounds distance: Children from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities and economically poor families face barriers that limit enrolment, attendance and completion together.

What limits infrastructure and teacher deployment in backward districts?

1. Infrastructure has improved unevenly: School infrastructure has improved in several areas of the country on drinking water and electricity, and availability still varies across regions.
2. Rural schools in backward districts lag: Educationally backward districts continue to struggle to provide a learning environment in rural schools compared with urban areas.
3. One teacher, many roles: Rural and remote schools face teachers handling multiple classes and subjects alongside non teaching responsibilities allotted by the government.

Which groups remain outside the gains?

1. Girls’ schooling has advanced without closing retention: Progress in girls’ schooling has not removed the challenge of reducing dropout rates.
2. The primary to secondary transition is weak: Improving the transition from primary to secondary education remains a stated gap.
3. Facilities for disabled children fall short: Sufficient and suitable facilities for children with disabilities are not yet in place.
4. What inclusion requires: Inclusive infrastructure, accessible classrooms and supportive teaching practices are the stated conditions for equitable education.

Does progress in national averages amount to educational equity?

1. Improvement and inequality sit in the same dataset: Educational inequality persists across accessibility, infrastructure, teacher availability, digital resources and social inclusion even as the aggregate indicators improve.
2. The dimensions move together: Addressing these dimensions collectively is treated as essential, since a gain on one indicator does not carry across to the others.
3. The paradox of progress: Regional and social imbalances continue to influence educational opportunities and learning conditions, so the national average understates what a child in a lagging district faces.

What would a targeted equity response have to do differently?

1. Investment directed at deprived regions: Targeted investment in educationally deprived regions is the first measure set out, in line with the National Education Policy 2020.
2. Teacher deployment as an equity instrument: Deployment is set out as a requirement distinct from recruitment. Eg. The State spread in secondary stage ratios.
3. Digital infrastructure as a school input: Improved digital infrastructure is named alongside physical infrastructure rather than as an add on.
4. Dedicated support for disadvantaged groups: Stronger support for disadvantaged social groups, backed by inclusive social and economic policies, is required in addition to general spending.

Conclusion

India’s school education system has largely settled the access question and opened the equity question in its place. The 2025-26 data establishes progress at the national level and leaves the distribution unsettled, since the State a child studies in still predicts enrolment, teacher availability and completion. Progress will read as equity only when the distance between the best and the worst performing States narrows on the same indicators that have improved nationally.

“[2022, GS2, 15 marks] The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 remains inadequate in promoting incentive-based system for children’s education without generating awareness about the importance of schooling. Analyse.”