India has 1 lakh single-teacher schools with 33 lakh students: Education Ministry

According to official data, more than 33 lakh students are enrolled in more than 1 lakh single-teacher schools across the country, with Andhra Pradesh having the highest number of such schools and Uttar Pradesh leading with the highest student enrolment.

According to education ministry data, in the academic year 2024-25, there were 1,04,125 schools in India that were run by a single teacher, and 33,76,769 students studied in such schools – an average of about 34 students per school.

The Right to Education Act, 2009, mandates a student-teacher ratio (PTR) of 30:1 at the primary level (Class IV) and 35:1 at the upper primary level (Class VI-VIII).

Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of “single-teacher” schools in the country, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Lakshadweep.

However, when it comes to student enrollment in schools with a single teacher, Uttar Pradesh tops the list, followed by Jharkhand, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

The number of single-teacher schools is to decline from 1,18,190 in 2022-23 to 1,10,971 in 2023-24, registering a decline of about 6%.

“The government is on a mission to improve learning outcomes and make best possible use of available resources through merger of schools and consolidation of schools, often called ‘rationalization of schools’,” a senior official said.

“Single-teacher schools hinder the teaching learning process, and hence efforts are being made to redeploy teachers from schools with zero student enrollment to single-teacher schools to ensure optimal teacher availability,” the official said.

There are 12,912 single-teacher schools in Andhra Pradesh, 9,508 in Uttar Pradesh, 9,1720 in Jharkhand, 8,152 in Maharashtra, 7,349 in Karnataka, 7,217 in Lakshadweep, 7,217 in Madhya Pradesh, 6,482 in West Bengal, 6,117 in Rajasthan, 5,973 in Chhattisgarh and Telangana. (5,001).

There are nine single-teacher schools in Delhi.

There are no single-teacher schools in the Union Territories of Puducherry, Ladakh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu and Chandigarh. There are only four single-teacher schools in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

In terms of student enrollment in single-teacher schools, Uttar Pradesh leads with 6,24,327 students pursuing education in such schools, followed by Jharkhand with 4,36,480 students, West Bengal 2,35,494, Madhya Pradesh 2,29,095, Karnataka 2,23,142, Andhra Pradesh 1,97,113. Rajasthan including 1,72,071.

When it comes to average student enrollment per school, Chandigarh and Delhi have the highest number of students per school at 1,222 and 808 respectively.

On the other hand, enrollment per school in Ladakh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh is much lower at 59, 70, 73 and 82 respectively.

“Higher number of students per school indicates optimum utilization of school infrastructure and schools with lower enrollment are currently being merged to ensure optimum utilization,” the official said.