चलो मिलकर लड़ाई करें,
स्कूल बचाएँ, फिर पढ़ाई करें।
Shilpa S, Adarsh M Saji
In India, under the current BJP-led NDA government, school education has become one of the most neglected sectors. The corporate-communal interest that dominates the ruling class’s aspirations has pushed the fundamental sectors, such as education, into the most challenging condition the country has experienced over the decades. Public schools, which are the primary social and economic ladders for the people of India, are on the verge of losing their core values. The number of public schools in India has declined from 11,07,101 in 2014-15 to 10,17,660 in 2023-24, with 89,441 public schools either shut down or merged with larger institutions over the last decade. This indicates the failure of the country’s ruling class in ensuring that citizens have the fundamental right to education. This depressing move is accompanied by severe issues, including shrinking public expenditure on education, inadequate infrastructural facilities, a lack of teaching faculties, interrupted mid-day meal schemes, and many more. The National Education Policy 2020 has further legitimised this negligence by justifying the school closure, allowing the government to escape accountability. This condition that confines the socially and economically marginalised communities into their existing state of being by denying their children the fundamental right to education and empowerment is a serious challenge to the country’s growth and progress.
The 8% decline in the number of public schools in India is contrasted by the thriving private schools (42,944 private schools from 2,88,164 to 3,31,108 in the last decade), indicating the corporate interest of the ruling class. 9 states and UTs have exceeded the national average of the number of public schools being closed in the country. The state of Madhya Pradesh has seen a sharp decline in the number of public schools in the last decade, contributing a significant portion of 32826 schools out of the total number of schools closed. Along with Uttar Pradesh, where 25,126 schools had been shut down, the states account for 60.9% of the total number of closed schools. At the same time, the state of Uttar Pradesh accounts for approximately 44.9% (19,305 schools) of the total number of private schools that have emerged in India over the last decade. National Education Policy, with its agenda of centralising, commercialising and communalising the education sector of the nation, has placed its special focus on the school education sector, further creating polarisation between public and private schools, intensifying the pace of school closure. The idea of “merging” the schools with the larger institutions quoting lack of several elements required for a school to function proposed by NEP 2020 outrightly justifies the act of closing down the schools, allowing the government to escape the accountability. Most of the schools affected by this approach is situated in rural or geographically marginalised areas where the students from working class, Dalit and Adivasi communities study. This negligence denies the socially and economically unprivileged the fundamental right to education and a possibility of progress.
The condition of school education in India needs to be understood critically. While the growing number of private schools and institutes dominate even the falling number of public schools, the remaining public schools are left with the indicators of severe negligence. This issue is accompanied by issues including shrinking public expenditure on education, inadequate infrastructural facilities, a lack of teaching faculties, interrupted mid-day meal schemes, neglected Anganwadis and many more.
Dilapidated school buildings and a lack of infrastructural facilities mark the pathetic conditions of public schools in India. In the state of Rajasthan alone, over 3,700 school buildings and 83,700 classrooms function under risky circumstances. The basic facilities concerning health and hygiene are absent in thousands of schools. 24,580 schools in India have no drinking water facilities in the school premises and 67,000 schools operate with no functional toilets, further isolating girl students from pursuing regular school education. While the national education policies push for a blended mode of education where the traditional classrooms will also engage with learning using digital facilities, around 1.52 lakh schools in India have no functional electricity services. Out of 10.17 lakh government schools, only 4.42 lakh (43.5%) schools have a functional computer for pedagogical purposes. Co-curricular activity rooms for enhancing the creative skills of the students are lagging behind in Indian schools, with only 9.9% of the total 10.17 lakh government schools having spaces for art and craft. Only 1.6 lakh schools have integrated science laboratory facilities among 2.86 lakh schools that have secondary sections. About half of the government schools in India do not have lab facilities, with only 59,972 out of 1.19 lakh schools having science lab facilities.
The structural negligence on the part of the government is reflected in the condition of the public schools across the country. The Indian state has long promised to invest at least 6 % of GDP in education, a benchmark recognised internationally for achieving equitable, quality schooling. However, the latest government data shows total public expenditure on education (combining central and state spending) remains far below this target. According to responses in Parliament, India’s public education spending increased from 3.84 % of GDP in 2013-14 to only about 4.12 % of GDP by 2021-22, the most recent comprehensive estimate available; this is still significantly lower than the NEP’s own benchmark and the levels seen in some neighbouring countries. On the central government’s part, the Union Budget 2025-26 allocated approximately ₹1.28 lakh crore to the Ministry of Education, an increase over previous years, but this number must be contextualised within the larger fiscal narrative. A substantial portion of the allocation is directed toward higher education, research, and flagship initiatives, such as PM SHRI, while basic school education programs, including Samagra Shiksha and PM Poshan, receive comparatively modest shares when measured against the scale of need.
Moreover, despite higher headline allocations, actual budget utilisation has fluctuated, with the Ministry’s spending on education rising by about 21 % between 2019-20 and 2024-25, yet reaching only around 4.1 % of GDP, which is well below the 6 % target that has been a longstanding demand of educationists and civil society.
The quality of education is compromised. Over 33 lakh students across the country are enrolled in more than 1 lakh single-teacher schools, with Andhra Pradesh recording the highest number of such schools and Uttar Pradesh leading in student enrolments, according to official data. The Education Ministry acknowledged over 3.57 lakh vacant teaching posts in government schools as of 2025, including nearly 3 lakhs at the elementary level. Some states alone account for massive gaps, such as Uttar Pradesh, which has about 1.94 lakh unfilled posts, with sizable deficits also in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. State-level reports echo this crisis: for instance, Karnataka faces 45,590 teacher vacancies across its government schools. Such shortages erode effective classroom size, forcing multi-grade teaching and undermining the NEP promise of “individualised learning.” This is evident in the dropout rates across the nation, which have been continuously high, where over 65.7 lakh children have left the school, among whom half of the students are girls. According to the state-level breakdown, Gujarat reported the highest number of out-of-school children in 2025–26. The state identified 2.4 lakh students who were no longer attending school, including 1.1 lakh adolescent girls.
Nearly 8.8 lakh under-five children die every year in our country. According to government data, 37% of our children (0–6 years), i.e., nearly six crore children, are stunted, and 17%, or 2.7 crore children, are underweight. Due to pro-corporate policies, poverty, hunger, and malnutrition are on the rise, but the government remains in denial. Hollow announcements on POSHAN Abhiyan, “Saksham Anganwadis,” and similar schemes are nothing but a deception of the people. Moreover, early childhood education of children is being neglected. Although children under six years of age are covered under the Food Security Act, they do not have legal rights to early childhood education and development. It is shocking that school enrollment in our country has decreased by one crore in the last year.
Even after five decades, more than 3.38 lakh Anganwadi centres still lack access to clean drinking water, and 4.61 lakh centres lack toilet facilities. Even after 50 years of existence, at present, only 48.6% of Anganwadis have their own buildings, 23.34% of centres do not have a functional toilet, and around 10% of Anganwadis do not have drinking water facilities, showing utter neglect by various governments of such a crucial scheme. At present, only around 8 crore children, i.e., half of the 0–6-year-old children, are covered under ICDS. The quality of food supplied in Anganwadi centres lacks adequacy due to very low funding allocation. The per-child/per-beneficiary cost norms are not being revised in accordance with rising prices. Pre-school education lacks infrastructure and facilities such as learning materials in Anganwadi centres, and there is no proper training for Anganwadi workers. Anganwadi workers are overburdened with non-ICDS work. Teaching–learning methodologies are not being updated according to current needs. Although the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 talks about strengthening Anganwadi centres, it is actually an effort to transfer Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) of 3–6-year-old children to the formal education system under the Ministry of Education, with a clear aim of privatising pre-school education. At present, a large number of posts of Anganwadi workers, helpers, supervisors, and CDPOs are vacant, new recruitment is not taking place, and workloads are increasing.
The critique of NEP 2020 must go beyond identifying its exclusions and contradictions to articulating a clear alternative. An alternative to the privatised education system in India should emphasise universal access, social equity, and community participation. Government schools should be widely available, free or low-cost, and supported by trained teachers. The state should achieve high literacy rates through early investment in schooling, midday meals, and health programs that keep children in school. Local self-governments and parent-teacher associations to actively support schools to improve accountability. Kerala offers such a model, one grounded not in rhetoric about a mythical past, but in constitutional values of social justice and democracy. The experience of Kerala demonstrates that education can be strengthened through public investment, democratic participation, and an unwavering commitment to inclusion, rather than through centralisation, privatisation, and ideological control by elevating the public schools to international standards by ensuring secure and elaborate infrastructure, digitalised classrooms with accessibility to technical assistance, nutritious and diverse mid-day meal, a clear focus on overall development of the students through offering creative and athletic activities. Kerala’s education model is anchored in universal access and public responsibility. The state has consistently treated education as a collective social project rather than an individual investment. Through sustained public funding, infrastructural development via KIIFB, expansion of welfare-linked education, and targeted interventions in backward and tribal regions, Kerala has worked to democratise both access and outcomes. The public schools being elevated to international standards by ensuring secure and elaborate infrastructure, digitalised classrooms with accessibility to technical assistance, nutritious and diverse mid-day meal, a clear focus on overall development of the students through offering creative and athletic activities, the Kerala model of school education illustrates how the
The crisis in Indian education is political, and so is its solution. Kerala shows that an alternative is possible, that expands democracy, protects social justice, and strengthens public education. Defending and extending this model is essential to resisting NEP 2020 and reclaiming education as a fundamental right for all.
For the Students’ Federation of India, defending public education is inseparable from defending democracy and social justice. SFI stands for a fully publicly funded, equitable, and inclusive education system that guarantees quality schooling for every child, regardless of class, caste, gender, region, or religion. This requires an immediate increase in education spending to at least 6% of GDP, an end to school closures and privatisation, regular recruitment of teachers, and the strengthening of welfare schemes like Midday Meals and Anganwadis.
The fight to save public education is a fight against inequality, authoritarianism, and corporate control. SFI has continuously resisted this systematic dismantling and has sought to collectively reclaim education as a fundamental right. Only through organised struggle can we defend public education and build a just, equal, and democratic India.
As a new phase of the struggle SFI has organised national convention in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh to initiate the School Bachao Movement launched by SFI. Lok Sabha MP, Amraram inaugurated the convention and education activist Upendra Sharma addressed the convention as the key speaker. Comrade Adarsh M Saji (President, SFI) chaired the Convention and comrade Ajay Tiwari ( SFI Madhya Pradesh State Secretary) welcomed the delegates. Comrade Srijan Bhattacharyya (General Secretary, SFI) addressed the convention. Comrade Shilpa Surendran (Vice President, SFI) presented the document on the deterioration of public schools in India and comrade Subhash Jakhar (Vice President, SFI) placed the Plan of action framework for the movement. Comrade Aishe Ghosh (Joint Secretary, SFI) placed the demand charter in the convention. Comrades Anil Thakur (Joint Secretary, SFI) and Satyesha Leuva (Vice President, SFI) also addressed the convention. Around 200 delegates from different states of the country , where the deterioration of public schools have been created very serious situations, have participated in the convention. The delegates have discussed the situation in different states and the indifference of the BJP governments towards public schools. The convention has passed demand charter and adopted the plan of action for the movement. The convention has decided to spread the movement to grass root level where the deterioration of public schools have taken place. This will be carried out by bringing together all the affected persons into the movement.