Government school closures hit poor students hardest
A report reveals that over 7 lakh children in Madhya Pradesh have no school records, with thousands of government schools seeing zero admissions. Data suggests a nationwide trend of declining government school enrollment and school closures, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities.
Why it matters
The decline in government school infrastructure and enrollment poses a significant threat to universal education access and social equity in India.
In December, Madhya Pradesh’s School Education Department found that 7.37 lakh children in the State have no school records at all. They are not enrolled in any school, private or government. Mostly from tribal-dominated districts, they are simply missing from the system.
In Jhabua and Shivpuri, for instance, 29,000 children fall into the “Drop Box” category—the Department’s term for those at imminent risk of dropping out. Across the State’s 55 districts, more than 3,500 government schools recorded zero new admissions this academic session. Another 6,500-odd saw fewer than ten.
The Department’s response was to instruct every District Education Officer to paste lists of unmapped children on school noticeboards, contact them directly, and upload the details to the State portal.
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