The issue of closure of government schools in the country is being raised loudly during the monsoon session of Parliament. Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav accused the Central Government of closing more than one lakh schools. In response to this, the Central Government clarified in the Lok Sabha that the decision to open, merge or close government schools comes under the jurisdiction of the states and union territories. Meanwhile, the UDISE+ data released by the government also revealed that the number of government schools in the country has decreased in the last few years. On the other hand, there has been a continuous increase in the number of universities and colleges.

Decline in the number of government schools

The Education Ministry told the Lok Sabha that the Center does not maintain separate records of school closures or their mergers. But according to the data uploaded on the UDISE+ portal by the states and union territories, the number of government schools has continuously decreased. There were a total of 10,22,386 government schools in the country in 2021-22, which reduced to 10,05,245 in 2025-26. That means about 17,000 schools were reduced in 4 years. If we look at the figures of the last decade, there has been a decrease of about 1 lakh in the number of government schools. Uttar Pradesh alone recorded the highest number of 1,77,103 government schools during 2025-26. However, in the preceding years there was a significant decline in the number of schools here. The process of merger and reorganization of schools in states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh was the most discussed.

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What did the central government say?

The government clarified that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 allows integration of schools, but it can be done only if it does not affect students’ access to education. The ministry says that during the merger of schools, it is important to ensure that children do not face additional difficulties in studies. The government also said that under the Samagra Shiksha Yojana, states are given financial assistance to strengthen overall school infrastructure, maintain student-teacher ratio, increase enrollment and retain students in school. At the same time, the responsibility of recruitment and deployment of teachers lies with the state governments.

Secondly, the number of universities increased rapidly

While in another country the number of schools has decreased, higher educational institutions have expanded rapidly. According to AISHE 2023-24, there were 723 universities in the country in the year 2013-14, which increased to 1,289 by 2023-24. That means the number of universities increased by about 77 percent in 10 years. Private universities played the biggest role in this increase. In 2013-14, there were 219 private universities in the country, whose number increased to 540. That means an increase of about 149 percent was recorded in private universities. At the same time, the number of government universities increased from 504 to 733, which is an increase of about 45 percent.

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