India, June 1 -- Jharkhand and Bihar together have over 10,000 unrecognised schools enrolling over 1.6 million students and having more than 88,000 teachers, according to the Union education ministry.

While Jharkhand has the "highest" 5,879 unrecognised schools in the country with an enrolment of 8,37,897 students and 46,421 teachers, Bihar has 4,915 such schools with an enrolment of 7,75,704 students and 42,377 teachers.

During Project Approval Board (PAB) meetings for the approval of budget and plans under Samagra Shiksha scheme for 2025-26 with the state officials between March and April 2025, the ministry stated that unrecognised schools are violating section 19 of the Right To Education (RTE) Act 2009 which requires pre-existing sc...