India, Dec. 1 -- The number of government schools with less than ten, or zero, student enrolment has increased by 24% in two years from 52,309 in 2022-23 to 65,054 in 2024-25, according to official data shared with the Parliament on Monday. The teachers posted in these schools have grown from 1.26 lakh to 1.44 lakh, a 14.3% increase in the same period.

According to government data maintained through Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) plus, the states with the highest number of low-enrolment schools in 2024-25 were West Bengal (6,703), Uttar Pradesh (6,561) and Maharashtra (6,552), and these same three states also had the largest number of teachers posted in such schools, with West Bengal deploying 27,348 teachers, ...