India, Nov. 10 -- Last week, a few media reports went viral. The reports projected a dataset that should make everyone concerned uncomfortable. They show that we have nearly 8,000 schools with no enrollment, yet these schools have been assigned more than 20,000 teachers. Before you think this dataset must be from a report done with a vicious motive, I must mention that it was published by none other than the Ministry of Education.

Released every year, this report on the state of school education-covering infrastructure, gross and net enrolments, and drop-out ratios at various levels-is called the UDISE+ report. Although it was published in August this year, it gained much-needed attention only last week.

At first glance, it sounds like ...