School dropout rate falls; teacher strength crosses 1 crore

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Education on Tuesday released two key reports on school education - the Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 for states/UTs and districts for 2025-26, and the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report for 2025-26.

ET takes a look at key takeaways:

UDISE+ 2025-26

∙ The total number of teachers has risen to 1.02 crore, up 8.3% from 94 lakh in 2022-23. Women continue to account for the majority of the workforce at 54.9%.


∙ Pupil-Teacher Ratios (PTR) continued to improve, comfortably surpassing the NEP target of 30:1. In 2025-26, the PTR stood at 10 at the Foundational stage, 12 at Preparatory, 17 at Middle and 21 at Secondary level.

∙ School Rationalisation: The number of zero-enrolment schools has fallen 29% to 5,663, while single-teacher schools have declined 3% to 100,843

∙ Lower Dropouts: The secondary school dropout rate declined to 7.0% in 2025-26 from 8.2% in 2024-25. The highest dropout rates at the secondary level were recorded in Ladakh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.

∙ Secondary Education: Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at the secondary level rose to 71.7% from 68.5% a year earlier, while student retention improved to 51.9% from 47.2%.

∙ Girls' Enrolment: Girls accounted for 48.4% of total enrolment in 2025-26, marginally up from 48.3% a year earlier.

∙ Digital Access: Computer access in schools increased to 69.9% from 64.7%, while internet connectivity improved to 67.4% from 63.5%.

∙ Sanitation & Power: Schools reported near-universal access to basic amenities, with 99.5% having safe drinking water, 98.5% girls' toilets, 97.2% boys' toilets and 95% grid electricity. Playground availability, however, declined from 83% to 81.9%.

∙ Inclusion: The share of schools with disability-accessible ramps and handrails increased to 58.2%, up from 54.9%.

∙ Minority Enrolment: Minority communities account for over 20% of total enrolment. Among minority students, 79.4% are Muslims, 10.1% Christians, 7.1% Sikhs, 2.0% Buddhists, 1.3% Jains and 0.1% Parsis

∙ Social Category: Nationally, 44.9% of students registered in UDISE+ belong to the OBC category, 27.5% to the General category, 17.7% to SCs, and 10% to STs.

State-wise performance

The PGI 2025-26 report assesses states and Union Territories across six domains - Learning Outcomes, Access, Infrastructure & Facilities, Equity, Governance Process, and Teacher Education & Training.

∙ No state or Union Territory has achieved any of the top three grades (71%-100%) in the 10-tier PGI ranking. Chandigarh is the only one to reach the fourth-highest grade, 'Uttam-3', followed by Delhi, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Kerala and Punjab, which are placed in the 'Prachesta-1' category (51%-60%).

∙ The 'Prachesta-2' category (41%-50%) includes Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Odisha and Lakshadweep.

∙ Most states fall in the 'Prachesta-3' (31%-40%) and 'Akanshi-1' (21%-30%) categories, with 13 states in each grade.

∙ The 'Akanshi' (Aspirational) category includes Uttar Pradesh, along with Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, and the northeastern states of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Meghalaya, placing them at the lower end of the rankings.

∙ Punjab tops the rankings in Learning Outcomes, followed by Kerala. Kerala also leads in Access, along with Puducherry, and shares the top position in Teacher Education & Training with Lakshadweep. Most states performed well in Equity, with Tamil Nadu leading the domain.

∙ Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha and Uttarakhand recorded a decline in their PGI scores compared with 2024-25.

Inter-state gaps

∙ The highest and lowest scores among states/UTs in 2025-26 were 766.0 and 525.7, respectively, leaving a 31.4% gap between Chandigarh and Meghalaya. While the gap highlights the effort needed to reach the top grades, it has narrowed from 51% in 2017-18.