Government Schools Have More Schemes Than Ever. Are Children Learning Better?
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India’s school system is not short of government schemes. It is also not short of money. According to the Union Budget, spending on school education through Samagra Shiksha has stayed above ₹35,000 crore a year, even as new initiatives like PM SHRI schools and expanded digital platforms have been added. On paper, the system looks well covered. On the ground, learning outcomes tell a more uneven story.
UDISE+ data shows that India has around 26 crore students enrolled in schools, with government and government-aided schools accounting for nearly 70 per cent of them. Enrolment at the primary level has largely stabilised. The real drop begins later. Rates of dropout increase after the 8th grade, especially among girls, students from rural areas, and children belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes communities. The Right to Education Act provides for education only till the elementary level, therefore, the main issue is retention beyond that level.
Learning levels do not improve. According to ASER 2023, still about 42% of Class 5 pupils in rural India are able to read only a Class 2-level text, which is a slight increase from the pandemic years but still below the levels that were there ten years ago. In mathematics only around 45% of the Class 5 pupils could perform basic division. These divides linger on despite the introduction of teacher training programmes, digital content and curriculum reforms over the years.
School infrastructure has expanded rapidly. Evidence from UDISE+ indicates that drinking water facilities and toilets exist in more than 95 per cent of government schools and that over 90 percent have electricity connections. However, the actual situation at the schools is always pointed out by audits and field reports. Girls’ toilets in the majority of schools are either locked or not cleaned properly. Inaccessibility to the internet is a huge problem in rural and tribal areas, which restricts the use of digital learning resources.
The PM SHRI schools programme is meant to create model schools with better infrastructure and pedagogy. Over 14,000 schools have been selected across states. What is still missing is comparable learning data. So far, very little public evidence exists to demonstrate if the students of PM SHRI schools are achieving higher results than those in regular government schools located in the same districts. Education researchers are alerting that this type of selective upgrading, if not accompanied by systemic improvements, would bring about new disparities in public education.
Digital platforms have grown fast but unevenly. DIKSHA reports over 200 million course enrolments by teachers and students combined. However, usage data suggests many users log in briefly for training or compliance and do not return regularly. Teachers point to language limitations, poor connectivity, and lack of time during school hours. For students, access to smartphones or computers at home remains far from universal.
Schemes focused on girls show mixed results. Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas fanned out over the scale of residential schools for girls from less privileged background, but still the turning point remains limited when compared with demand. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao made the figure of students increase, however, the rates of switching from secondary to higher secondary education drop in many districts and mostly the reasons are safety, household duties or child marriage.
Money is also a restricting factor. Even though the amount of money allocated is still comparatively high, some states are reporting the issue of delays in the release of financial resources and unspent amounts under the Samagra Shiksha programme. School authorities express that the growing demand for compliance and documentation takes up a large chunk of time that could have been spent on students and academic activities.
The picture that emerges is not one of neglect, but of fragmentation. India’s school education system is crowded with schemes, platforms, and pilots. What it lacks is consistent follow-through inside classrooms. Until learning outcomes are tracked with the same urgency as enrolment numbers and infrastructure targets, the risk remains that programmes will keep multiplying while basic learning moves slowly.
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