From roads to toilets, student protests spotlight gaps in India’s schools

A new kind of student protest is beginning to surface on social media, with schoolchildren taking to the streets to demand basic improvements such as teachers, usable toilets, playgrounds and safe roads to their schools. While the grievances are local, government data, as reported by Times of India, suggests that many of the problems being raised reflect wider gaps in school infrastructure and staffing across the country.

In Hamirpur, 300 children marched 6 km to the collectorate demanding a usable road to their school. In Lucknow, around 250 girls marched to protest teacher shortages and inadequate basic amenities. In Jaipur, students with disabilities raised concerns over toilets, sanitation and unsafe classrooms.

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The nature and scale of the problems vary sharply across states. Jharkhand, for instance, has 36 pupils per teacher, while only 19.7% of schools in West Bengal have internet access. In Meghalaya, just 6.3% of schools have toilets for children with special needs.

Karnataka has 8,042 single-teacher schools, accounting for 10.8% of the state's total. Kerala, despite having internet access in 92.6% of schools and functional computers in 99.1%, has 68 schools with no enrolled students. Tamil Nadu, meanwhile, has internet connectivity in 99% of its schools, but digital libraries are available in only 0.8% of state government schools.

The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) NE-26 report records 24.7 crore students and 1 crore teachers across India's schools, with an overall pupil-teacher ratio of 24.

Infrastructure coverage, however, remains uneven. Internet access is available in 67.4% of schools and functional computers in 63.1%, while only 7.1% have digital libraries. Playgrounds are available in 81.9% of schools.

For children with special needs, 40.1% of schools have friendly toilets, while 79.7% have ramps and 58.2% have ramps with handrails.

Teacher deployment is another area of significant disparity. UDISE+ data shows that more than 29 lakh students are enrolled in 1,00,843 single-teacher schools. At the same time, 20,667 teachers are posted in 5,663 schools that have zero enrolment.

The management of schools is also heavily skewed towards state governments. State governments run 68.4% of India's schools, while private unaided managements account for 23.3%. Of the country's 14,66,682 schools, 10,03,051 are run by state governments and 2,194 by the Centre. Another 3,41,689 are recognised private unaided schools and 79,261 are government-aided institutions.

The gaps become more pronounced when basic facilities are examined by school management.

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Functional girls' toilets are available in 95.3% of state government schools and 96.9% of private unaided schools. But the availability of functional toilets for children with special needs falls to 35.6% in state government schools and 44.7% in private schools.

Private schools also have an edge in digital infrastructure. Digital libraries are available in 11.2% of private schools, compared with 5.6% of state government schools. Internet connectivity stands at 79.2% in private schools against 63.1% in government schools, while functional computers are available in 74% of private schools and 59.4% of government schools.

Government schools, however, perform better on some accessibility measures. Ramps are available in 88.2% of government schools, compared with 60.4% of private schools, while ramps with handrails are available in 66.9% of government schools against 36.8% of private institutions.

The figures underline the disconnect between overall improvements in school infrastructure and the everyday problems that students continue to encounter. For children marching over a broken road, a missing teacher or an unusable toilet, the gaps in national education statistics translate into immediate barriers to attending school and learning in safe, functional surroundings.