The Crossbill News Desk
A recent assessment of India’s school education landscape has highlighted deep structural issues affecting student retention and learning outcomes, particularly at the secondary and higher secondary stages.
The findings emerge from a decadal analysis conducted by NITI Aayog, which examined long-term trends in access, progression, and quality across the country’s education system, according to a report by The Hindu.
The report, titled “School education system in India – temporal analysis and policy roadmap for quality Enhancement”, also flags a consistent crisis in achieving learning outcomes and highlights the “pyramidal” problem.
The study describes India’s schooling structure as resembling a sharp pyramid. While the country currently has 14.71 lakh schools serving 24.69 crore students, institutional availability narrows sharply at higher levels. There are about 7.3 lakh primary schools, but the number falls steeply to only 1.64 lakh institutions at the higher secondary stage, creating major transition challenges for students.
According to the analysis, four out of every 10 children who enter the education system drop out before completing higher secondary education.
“This structural fragmentation means only 5.4% of schools offer a continuous journey from Grade 1 to 12. For the vast majority of students, moving up through the grades requires changing institutions multiple times – a hurdle that contributes to a steep attrition rate,” says the report, reported The Hindu.
“This fragmentation without any established linkage between schools for transitioning requires students to shift schools at key stages, depending on local availability, which further contributes to declining retention rates and limits the likelihood of progression to higher stages of education,” the report adds.
The analysis also draws attention to a significant number of non-functional schools across states. Around 7,993 schools nationwide reported zero enrolment, with West Bengal accounting for 3,812 such schools and Telangana reporting 2,245.
“While these schools appear operational in administrative records, they no longer serve any student population. These schools, despite zero enrolment, continue to receive financial and human resources due to the lack of updating of records, showing the difference between on-ground reality and planning,” says the report.
The study further notes concerns about learning quality despite sustained enrolment levels. Reading proficiency among Grade 8 students has declined over the past decade, with the share of students able to read a Grade 2 text dropping from 74.7% in 2014 to 71.1% in 2024.
The findings emerge from a decadal analysis conducted by NITI Aayog, which examined long-term trends in access, progression, and quality across the country’s education system, according to a report by The Hindu.
The report, titled “School education system in India – temporal analysis and policy roadmap for quality Enhancement”, also flags a consistent crisis in achieving learning outcomes and highlights the “pyramidal” problem.
The study describes India’s schooling structure as resembling a sharp pyramid. While the country currently has 14.71 lakh schools serving 24.69 crore students, institutional availability narrows sharply at higher levels. There are about 7.3 lakh primary schools, but the number falls steeply to only 1.64 lakh institutions at the higher secondary stage, creating major transition challenges for students.
According to the analysis, four out of every 10 children who enter the education system drop out before completing higher secondary education.
“This structural fragmentation means only 5.4% of schools offer a continuous journey from Grade 1 to 12. For the vast majority of students, moving up through the grades requires changing institutions multiple times – a hurdle that contributes to a steep attrition rate,” says the report, reported The Hindu.
“This fragmentation without any established linkage between schools for transitioning requires students to shift schools at key stages, depending on local availability, which further contributes to declining retention rates and limits the likelihood of progression to higher stages of education,” the report adds.
The analysis also draws attention to a significant number of non-functional schools across states. Around 7,993 schools nationwide reported zero enrolment, with West Bengal accounting for 3,812 such schools and Telangana reporting 2,245.
“While these schools appear operational in administrative records, they no longer serve any student population. These schools, despite zero enrolment, continue to receive financial and human resources due to the lack of updating of records, showing the difference between on-ground reality and planning,” says the report.
The study further notes concerns about learning quality despite sustained enrolment levels. Reading proficiency among Grade 8 students has declined over the past decade, with the share of students able to read a Grade 2 text dropping from 74.7% in 2014 to 71.1% in 2024.
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