School Closures, Student Deaths, Children Out of School: The State of Public Education
Aparna Kalra | 30 April 2026 | The Wire
Earlier this year, Member of Parliament John Brittas posted on X: “Govt admits in Rajya Sabha: India lost 18,727 government schools in 5 years, while private unaided schools rose by 8,475 in just one year. Public education is shrinking. Private schooling is expanding.”
School closure, alarming in itself, gets doubly so when combined with another set of numbers, contained in the Economic Survey, 2025-26, tabled in Parliament three months ago: Most out-of-school children in India are between 14 to 18 in age. India has 20 million children who do not go to school in the 14-18 age group, described as secondary school age group by the survey. Of these, less than 1% have any formal skills training, the survey added…