UDISE+ 2024–25 Report: India’s Schools Show Record Teacher Strength, Better PTR, Lower Dropouts, and Rising Retention

For the first time in any academic year, India’s teacher workforce has crossed the 1-crore mark — a landmark moment that coincides with falling dropout rates, smoother student transitions, and stronger classroom outcomes.

The Ministry of Education has recently released the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2024–25 report, a comprehensive document that provides a detailed snapshot of the Indian school education system.

This report, like its predecessors, goes beyond just numbers; it paints a story of India’s demographic shifts, policy interventions, infrastructural developments, and the evolving relationship between schools, teachers, and students. When read carefully, it highlights an interesting paradox: quality indicators such as dropout rates, pupil–teacher ratios, retention, and inclusivity are improving at unprecedented levels, yet overall enrolment is declining due to demographic changes.

To understand this dual reality, it is important to trace the report across key themes such as teacher strength, pupil–teacher ratios, dropout and retention rates, enrolment trends, gender equity, infrastructure expansion, and demographic transitions. Each theme not only provides a statistic but also reflects a social story — one of aspiration, policy intent, and challenges.

Teachers Cross the One-Crore Mark

Perhaps the most symbolic milestone of the 2024–25 report is that, for the first time in the history of UDISE+ reporting, the number of teachers in India has crossed the 1-crore mark.

Teacher numbers rose from 94,83,294 in 2022–23 to 98,07,600 in 2023–24, and further to 1,01,22,420 in 2024–25, marking a 6.7% rise within two years. This is not merely a quantitative jump. The presence of such a large workforce has a direct bearing on quality of education, since more teachers mean reduced pressure on individual classrooms and better coverage in remote and disadvantaged areas.

Importantly, the expansion of teacher strength addresses a long-standing concern of regional disparity in teacher availability. Rural and tribal schools, often marked by shortages, stand to gain significantly from this increased pool.

When we connect this to policy vision, the growth reflects sustained recruitment drives, greater budget allocations, and the impact of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which emphasizes quality learning environments as a precondition for foundational literacy and numeracy.

Pupil–Teacher Ratios: An Unprecedented Improvement

The rising teacher numbers have translated directly into improvements in the Pupil–Teacher Ratio (PTR) — the average number of students per teacher. PTR is a crucial measure because it determines how much individual attention a child can receive. Smaller PTRs mean more scope for teachers to notice, guide, and correct students individually.

The report notes that PTRs have improved to 10:1 at the Foundational level, 13:1 at the Preparatory stage, 17:1 at the Middle level, and 21:1 at the Secondary stage.

For comparison, in 2014–15, these ratios stood at 15:1, 18:1, 26:1, and 31:1 respectively. Over a decade, this is a significant shift.

Why is this improvement important? The NEP 2020 recommends a PTR of 30:1 as ideal. India today is not just meeting but surpassing this benchmark across levels.

A secondary classroom that once had 31 students for every teacher now has only 21, meaning discussions can be richer, assessments more personalized, and learning outcomes more closely monitored.

At the foundational stage, the improvement is even sharper, falling from 15:1 to 10:1 in a decade. For early childhood education, where attention spans are short and nurturing crucial, such ratios are transformative.

The last three years reflect this trend clearly. At the Foundational stage, PTR improved from 11 in 2022–23 to 10 in 2023–24 and remained at 10 in 2024–25. At Preparatory, it fell from 14 to 13, and at Middle from 18 to 17.

Secondary PTR dropped from 23 in 2022–23 to 21 in 2023–24 and has remained stable. The stability is also significant — it indicates that these improvements are not temporary spikes but part of a sustained trajectory.

Dropout Rates: A Story of Decline

The most heartening finding of the 2024–25 report is the sharp reduction in dropout rates. The dropout rate refers to the percentage of students leaving school before completing a particular level.

In India, historically, dropout rates have been a major barrier to universal schooling, particularly at the middle and secondary levels, due to socio-economic pressures, early marriage, child labour, or lack of accessible schools.

In just two years, dropout rates have more than halved in some categories. At the Preparatory stage, the rate dropped from 8.7% in 2022–23 to 3.7% in 2023–24, and further to 2.3% in 2024–25.

At the Middle stage, the fall has been from 8.1% to 5.2% and now to 3.5%. At the Secondary stage, where dropout rates traditionally remain high, the decline has been from 13.8% in 2022–23 to 10.9% in 2023–24, and now 8.2% in 2024–25.

This consistent decline is more than just a statistical achievement. It suggests that schools are becoming more responsive to the needs of students, whether through scholarships, mid-day meals, improved sanitation, or counselling support.

Policy efforts such as Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and digital learning drives have clearly played a role. The fact that these numbers are falling across all levels also reflects systemic progress rather than isolated interventions.

Retention Rates: More Students Staying On

Connected to dropout is the indicator of student retention rate — the proportion of students who continue their schooling at successive grade levels. If dropout rates are declining, retention rates must logically rise.

The 2024–25 data confirms this. Foundational retention rose from 98.0% to 98.9%, Preparatory from 85.4% to 92.4%, Middle from 78.0% to 82.8%, and Secondary from 45.6% to 47.2%.

Over the last three years, the growth is even clearer: at the Foundational level, retention has risen from 92.1% in 2022–23 to nearly 99% in 2024–25. Preparatory retention, after dipping slightly in 2023–24, rebounded strongly. Secondary retention, while still under 50%, has inched upwards consistently.

The improvement at the secondary level deserves special mention. Secondary schooling often faces the biggest challenges of access, as students in many areas have to travel longer distances or bear higher costs. The report links the improvement directly to the increase in schools offering secondary education.

This means accessibility has improved, making it easier for students to continue. The retention numbers here show that structural expansion is translating into sustained participation.

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER): A Rising Share of Eligible Children

While total enrolment numbers are declining (more on that later), the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is rising. GER is defined as the total enrolment in a specific level of education, expressed as a percentage of the eligible official school-age population. In other words, it measures how many of the children who should be in school actually are.

In 2024–25, GER at the Middle level rose from 89.5% to 90.3%, and at the Secondary level from 66.5% to 68.5%. Over a longer horizon, the GER at Middle has hovered around 90% since 2022–23, showing stability, while Secondary GER has grown from 67.6% in 2022–23 to nearly 69%.

This rising GER amidst falling absolute enrolment is not a contradiction. It reflects India’s demographic transition. As fewer children are being born, the total eligible population shrinks. But within that smaller population, a larger share is enrolling, suggesting that the system is becoming more inclusive.

Transition Rates: Smoother Progression Through Levels

A critical challenge in education is ensuring that students not only enrol but also transition smoothly from one stage to another. Many students drop out during these transitions. The UDISE+ 2024–25 data shows progress here as well.

The transition rate from Foundational to Preparatory increased from 98.1% to 98.6%, from Preparatory to Middle rose from 88.8% to 92.2%, and from Middle to Secondary improved from 83.3% to 86.6%. The three-year perspective shows steady gains, particularly in the crucial jump from Preparatory to Middle.

High transition rates suggest that fewer children are dropping out at these fragile points, thanks to policy measures such as universal access to upper-primary schools within a set radius, and improved infrastructure in rural areas.

Enrolment Trends: The Decline Amid Progress

Despite all these positive indicators, the report reveals a sobering reality: total enrolment has fallen. From 26.3 crore in 2012–13, enrolment hovered around 26 crore till 2021–22, but since then has dropped to 25.18 crore in 2022–23, 24.8 crore in 2023–24, and now 24.69 crore in 2024–25.

The Foundational and Preparatory stages alone lost nearly 25 lakh students in a single year, declining from 12.09 crore in 2023–24 to 11.84 crore in 2024–25.

This marks the steepest fall.

The reasons lie in demographic changes. India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman — has dropped to 1.91 in 2021, below the replacement level of 2.1. Replacement level fertility is the rate at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next. With fertility falling across most states (except Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Meghalaya), the base population of school-age children is shrinking. Migration and the rise of private standalone pre-schools also partly explain the decline.

Interestingly, while overall enrolment is falling, middle and secondary levels saw growth. Enrolment in middle schools rose from 6.31 crore to 6.36 crore, and in secondary schools from 6.39 crore to 6.48 crore. This reflects improved transition and retention, even though the pipeline of new children entering schools is thinning.

Infrastructure and Inclusivity: Schools Becoming Student-Friendly

Another strong feature of the 2024–25 report is the improvement in school infrastructure. The presence of computers in schools increased from 57.2% in 2023–24 to 64.7% in 2024–25, and internet access from 53.9% to 63.5%. This reflects a stronger emphasis on digital learning, a priority after the pandemic exposed the importance of online access.

Basic facilities too have improved: 93.6% of schools now have electricity, 99.3% safe drinking water, 97.3% girls’ toilets, 96.2% boys’ toilets, and 95.9% handwashing facilities. Libraries exist in nearly 90% of schools, and playgrounds in 83%. Rainwater harvesting, though still low, has risen slightly to 29.4%.

Inclusivity has been strengthened with ramps and handrails in 54.9% of schools, making education more accessible to children with disabilities. The reduction in single-teacher schools (from 1,18,190 in 2022–23 to 1,04,125 in 2024–25) and zero-enrolment schools (down by 38% in a year) shows that rationalization and better allocation of teachers are working.

Gender Equity: Women at the Center of Education

The report also reflects a positive gender story. Female teachers now constitute 54.2% of the teaching workforce, up from 52.3% in 2022–23 and 53.3% in 2023–24. This majority presence is significant for creating gender-sensitive classrooms and for encouraging girls’ participation.

Correspondingly, girls’ enrolment rose modestly from 48.1% to 48.3% in 2024–25. Though incremental, this rise consolidates the broader trend towards equity.

A Dual Reality

When we put all these threads together, the UDISE+ 2024–25 report tells a complex but coherent story. On one hand, quality indicators such as PTR, dropout, retention, GER, transition rates, infrastructure, and female representation are showing unprecedented progress. On the other hand, quantity indicators such as total enrolment are declining, reflecting India’s demographic shift to low fertility.

In simple terms: fewer children are being born, but those who are entering the school system are more likely than ever to stay, progress, and complete their education.

This paradox must guide policy in the coming decade. The challenge is no longer just expansion but deepening quality — ensuring that every child benefits from inclusive, digital-ready, supportive schools with well-trained teachers. As the 2026 Census provides updated baselines, India will have to balance shrinking child cohorts with the promise of creating a stronger, more resilient, and more equitable education system.

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