11 November is National Education Day, marking the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India’s first education minister. Here is where Indian school education stands, in six numbers from the government’s UDISE+ 2025-26 report. It covers 14.67 lakh schools, 1.03 crore teachers and 24.72 crore students.
1. About half of secondary students stay through the stage
The retention rate at the secondary stage (Classes 9 to 12) is 51.9%, against 98.5% at the foundational stage. The secondary dropout rate is 7%, and the gross enrolment ratio at this stage is 71.7%.
2. Over one lakh schools have a single teacher
1,00,843 schools run with one teacher, about 3% fewer than a year earlier. Schools with no students at all fell 29% to 5,663.
3. Three in ten schools have no computer
69.9% of schools have computers and 67.4% have internet, so roughly three in ten have neither.
4. 24 students per teacher
The overall pupil-teacher ratio is 24:1, within the NEP 2020 benchmark of 30:1. It rises from 10:1 at the foundational stage to 21:1 at the secondary stage.
5. More women than men teach
Women are 54.9% of all teachers. Girls are 48.4% of students.
6. Ramps are the weak spot
Almost every school has drinking water (99.5%) and a girls’ toilet (98.5%), and 95% have electricity. But only 58.2% have ramps with handrails for children with disabilities, and 29.9% harvest rainwater.
What it means
Getting children into school is largely done. Keeping them through Classes 9 to 12, putting a teacher in every classroom and bringing computers to the remaining schools are the gaps the numbers point to.
Source: UDISE+ 2025-26 report, Ministry of Education, as summarised by PIB in its explainer of 17 August 2026.
