A recent analysis of official data highlights a significant presence of single-teacher schools across India, with over 104,000 such institutions serving more than 3.3 million students in the academic year 2024-25. On average, these schools cater to about 34 students per teacher.
Andhra Pradesh leads the nation with the highest count of single-teacher schools, while Uttar Pradesh registers the most student enrollments in these schools. This trend is also observed in states like Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Lakshadweep, though the student enrollment figures place Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh at the top.
The data indicates a decrease in the number of single-teacher schools, dropping by approximately 6% from 118,190 in 2022-23 to 110,971 in 2023-24. This decline aligns with the government’s mission to enhance learning outcomes and optimize resource utilization through school mergers and consolidation, often referred to as ‘rationalisation of schools’.
Officials emphasize that single-teacher schools can pose challenges to the teaching-learning process. To address this, efforts are underway to reassign teachers from schools with no student enrollment to single-teacher schools, ensuring a more equitable distribution of teaching staff.
Specific state figures show Andhra Pradesh with 12,912 single-teacher schools and Uttar Pradesh with 9,508. Other states with a notable number include Jharkhand (9,172), Maharashtra (8,152), and Karnataka (7,349).
In contrast, large metropolitan areas like Delhi have only nine such schools, and Union Territories such as Puducherry, Ladakh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Chandigarh have none. Andaman and Nicobar Islands report just four single-teacher schools.
Regarding student numbers, Uttar Pradesh leads with 624,327 students in single-teacher schools, followed by Jharkhand (436,480) and West Bengal (235,494).
Interestingly, while some states have a high concentration of single-teacher schools, cities like Chandigarh and Delhi boast the highest average student enrollments per school, at 1,222 and 808, respectively. Conversely, regions like Ladakh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Himachal Pradesh show significantly lower averages, ranging from 59 to 82 students per school.
The government views the high student-to-school ratio in certain areas as an indicator of optimal infrastructure utilization, and is actively merging schools with low enrollments to achieve similar efficiency.
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