India’s school network shrank during the 2025-26 academic year, with an average of 13 schools closing every day, according to the latest Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report released by the Ministry of Education.
The report shows that the total number of schools across the country declined from 14,71,473 in 2024-25 to 14,66,682 in 2025-26, resulting in the closure of 4,791 schools over the year.
Madhya Pradesh accounted for the largest share of these closures, with 2,426 schools shutting down, representing more than half of the national total. Telangana recorded 1,392 closures, followed by West Bengal with 568, Andhra Pradesh with 474, Tamil Nadu with 369, Karnataka with 281 and Himachal Pradesh with 266.
The trend was not uniform across the country. Bihar added 946 schools during the year, while Chhattisgarh added 234 and Delhi added 87. However, all three states also recorded declining student enrolment. Bihar saw the sharpest fall, losing more than 4.37 lakh students, while enrolment also dropped in Chhattisgarh and Delhi.
The report also recorded the first decline in the number of zero enrolment schools. These fell from 7,993 in 2024-25 to 5,663 in 2025-26. Despite having no students, these schools continue to employ 20,667 teachers across India.
West Bengal reported an increase of 321 zero enrolment schools and now has 4,133 schools without a single enrolled student, where 19,502 teachers remain posted. Uttar Pradesh also saw the number of zero enrolment schools rise from 81 to 313 during the year. Chhattisgarh, which had no such schools in the previous year, reported 149 zero enrolment schools employing 140 teachers.
The figures reflect changing enrolment patterns across states and suggest that education systems are increasingly confronting questions of school consolidation, demographic shifts and resource allocation. While some regions continue to expand infrastructure, others are adapting to falling student numbers, making the management of schools and teaching staff an increasingly important policy challenge.
