UDISE+ 2025-26: SC, OBC enrolment hits 6-year low; over 8,000 govt schools shut in a year as 26 lakh drop out

UDISE Plus 2025-26: While enrolment among Schedule Caste (SC) and the Other Backward Classes (OBC) students has fallen to its lowest point in the last six years, over 8,000 government schools closed their doors in a single academic year, reveals UDISE+ 2025-26 data released by the education ministry recently. SC enrolment now stands at 4.38 crore and that of OBC at 11.09 crores, a drop from 4.39 and 11.16 in the 2024-25 data, respectively.

For enrolment among the Schedule Tribe (ST), the other marginalised group, the data shows an increase, but not significant compared to the last six years data.

The falling numbers signal a large-scale closure of government schools. In 2025-26 the number of government schools stood at 10,05,245 as against 10,13,322 in 2024-25– showing 8,077 school closures, as against 4,338 in the previous year.

In the same two-year period the private schools number increased by 10,581.

UDISE Plus 2025-26: SC, OBC enrolment in schools

The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE full form) provides total enrolment, gross enrolment ratio for the historically disadvantaged and marginalised groups.

According to the data of the categories in the last six years, SC enrolment was higher in 2021-22 at 4.82 crore. Similarly for OBC, it was at 11.48 crores. The numbers have been constantly falling since then.

At the national level, 27.5% students registered in UDISE+ are from the general category, 17.7% from SC, 10% from ST, and 44.9% from the OBC category. In UDISE Plus 2024-25, 27.1% were from the general category, 17.8 % from SC, 9.9% from ST, and 45.2% from OBC category.

The minority and Muslim students enrolment has been the highest in the last six years at 5.03 crore and 3.99 crore, respectively.

26 lakh students disappear from govt schools

The decreasing enrolment in government and state government schools continues, but their numbers are not as high as in the preceding years, reveals the UDISE+ data.

This decreasing number also holds true for other central government schools. It is only the Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) and the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) that the enrollment saw an increase. In a year, 33 new KVs were added taking the total number to 1,286 and 12 new JNVs have also opened. There are now 665 JNVs in the country.

• KV Enrolment: 2025-26 – 0.14 crore
  2024-25 – 0.13 crore

• JNV Enrolment: 2025-26 – 0.03 crore
  2024-25 – 0.02 crore

Classes 6-8 see increased dropout rate

Overall the total enrollment in 2025-26 has increased to 24.72 crore from 24.69 crore in 2024-25. This includes students enrolled from foundational to secondary classes. The National Education Policy (NEP) classifies the school structure into foundational (three years of pre-school till class 2) preparatory(classes 3 to 5), middle (classes 6 to 8) and secondary (classes 9-12).

It is in the middle stage where the dropout rate has increased to 3.6% from 3.5% in 2024-25 with boys’ drop out rate standing at 3.8% against girls’ 3.4%. Girl dropout rate at this stage has increased to 3.4% from 2.9% in 2024-25 and boys has dropped from 4%.

Among the states, the dropout rate in states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh is higher than the national average. While Bihar’s dropout rate is 9%, for Uttar Pradesh, the rate has increased from 3% to 6.7% in 2025-26.

Secondary stage constitutes the highest enrollment at 6.71 crore. But the dropout rate is the highest at this stage at 7% – though a slight improvement from previous years at 8.2%. At this stage too, some states and UTs saw an increased dropout rate.

States like Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have improved their dropout rate at this stage to 1.7%, 2.9% and 4.8% in 2025-26 from 10.50, 3.50% and 6.60% in 2024-25, respectively. West Bengal, on the other hand, is a big improvement from 20.30% in 2024-25 to 1.5% in 2025-26.

The UDISE+ report adds, “Availability of the right mix of schools at all levels being a supply variable in the education system largely influences the demand factor. Though a large number of foundational and preparatory schools have been established post RTE, the commensurate establishment of schools at secondary level have not been evidenced. This imbalance in the availability of schools at all levels may pose the risk of large-scale dropout of students at the higher classes.”