A total of 5,149 government schools have no students at all and around 70 per cent of these schools reporting zero enrolment in the 2024-25 academic year are in Telangana and West Bengal, according to a data provided by the education ministry in the Parliament. Telangana has approximately 2,081 zero enrolment schools, while in West Bengal, there are 1,571 such institutions. In Telangana, Nalgonda district has the highest number of empty schools at 315, Mahabubabad- 167, Warangal- 135, revealed the data from the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+).
Meanwhile in West Bengal, Kolkata, the capital of the state has 211 government schools with zero enrolment – the second highest in the country. The next two highest districts are Purba Medinipur- 177, Dakshin Dinajpur- 147.
The schools with less than 10 or zero enrolment has also seen a sharp surge, as per the data. Over the last two years, the number of such government schools increased by 24 per cent- from 52,309 in 2022-23 to 65,054 in 2024-25. These schools now account for 6.42 per cent of the country's total government schools, the government said in a written reply to questions by MPs Karti P Chidambaram and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring in the Lok Sabha, as reported by news agency PTI.
Across India, 1.44 lakh teachers are currently posted in government schools with fewer than 10 students or no enrolment. In West Bengal, 27,348 teachers are assigned to 6,703 government schools in this low enrolment category, resulting in a ratio of approximately four teachers per school, according to government figures. Similarly, Bihar has deployed 3,600 teachers for 730 such schools, averaging nearly five teachers per institution – more than double the national average of 2.2 for this category.
