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Every year, almost every school in India reports how many students, teachers, classrooms and computers it has. The result is UDISE+, the Unified District Information System for Education Plus. Its numbers are behind most news stories about dropouts and school facilities. This post explains what the 2025-26 data show, what the key terms mean and how to read them carefully.
What is UDISE+ and how is the data collected?
UDISE+ is run by the Department of School Education and Literacy in the Ministry of Education. Unlike ASER or PARAKH, it does not test students. Schools themselves report data such as enrolment, teachers and infrastructure, and the system now tracks students individually. The figures below come from the official UDISE+ 2025-26 booklet, available from the UDISE+ dashboard, with comparisons to the 2024-25 booklet.
How big is India's school system?
In 2025-26, UDISE+ counted:
14,66,682 schools, of which 10,05,245 were government schools and 3,41,689 were private unaided recognised schools.
24.72 crore students from pre-primary to Class 12 (24,72,19,766). Government schools enrolled 11.89 crore and private unaided schools 9.89 crore.
1.03 crore teachers (1,02,73,020).
The number of schools fell slightly from 14,71,473 in 2024-25, while total enrolment rose slightly from 24,69,32,680.
How many students reach Class 11 and 12?
Three indicators answer this, and each means something different.
Gross enrolment ratio (GER) compares enrolment at a level with the population of the matching age group. For Classes 11-12 (higher secondary), GER was 61.7 in 2025-26, up from 58.4 in 2024-25. For Classes 9-10 (secondary) it was 81.5, up from 78.7.
Transition rate is the share of students who move from one level to the next. From secondary to higher secondary it was 78.1%, up from 75.1%.
Dropout rate at secondary level was 9.5%, down from 11.5%. At primary level it was 0.3% and at upper primary 3.6%.
There is also a retention rate: the share of children who stay from Class 1 through to a given class. Retention to Class 12 was 51.9%, up from 47.2%. Put simply, by this measure, only about half of the children who start school are still there at Class 12.
What about teachers and computers?
The pupil-teacher ratio was 19 at primary level, 17 at upper primary, 15 at secondary and 23 at higher secondary. These are national averages; the booklet notes that the distribution of schools and teachers differs a great deal across states.
On facilities, 95.0% of schools had electricity, 69.9% reported a computer facility and 67.4% an internet facility, up from 64.7% and 63.5% the year before. So roughly 3 in 10 schools still reported no computer facility.
What can UDISE+ not tell you?
It is self-reported. Schools fill in the data, so errors and gaps are possible, though linking students to unique IDs aims to reduce them.
It counts, it does not test. UDISE+ says nothing about how much students learn. For that, see PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 and ASER 2024.
GER can be misleading. Because it compares all enrolled students with an age group, students who are older or younger than the usual age are included. GER is not the same as the share of 16-17 year olds in school.
Having a computer is not using one. "Computer facility available" does not tell you how many working machines there are or how often students use them.
What does this mean for students and parents?
The data show that Class 10 to Class 11 is the point where many students leave the system. If you are in Class 10, the choice of stream matters, but so does simply continuing. Our guide on choosing a stream after Class 10 covers how families can think it through.
For students in schools without good labs or computers, the gap is real but not fixed. Free official resources and good self-study habits can fill part of it. A school without a computer lab does not have to mean a student without access to practice and explanation.
How to read a dataset like this
Before quoting a UDISE+ number, check the level (primary, secondary or higher secondary), the indicator (GER, dropout, transition or retention), and the year. A "61.7" for higher-secondary GER and a "78.1%" transition rate describe different things, and news reports sometimes mix them up. The booklet also comes in two versions, one using the existing primary-to-higher-secondary levels and one using the NEP 2020 stages, so make sure you compare figures from the same version.
If your school cannot show you an experiment or a moving diagram, the Fermi Simulation Lab has interactive simulations for ideas that are easier to see than to read.
If you are in Class 10, write down which stream you are leaning towards and one question you need answered before you decide.
