Why Parents Are Pulling Kids Out of Government Schools
Government school enrolment is falling across India as teachers get pulled into SIR duty, leaving classrooms understaffed and parents seeking private alternatives.
AC Team
Pabitra Sahoo did what a lot of worried parents are doing right now. He walked into his son's government school in Cuttack, saw that classes were being disrupted, and walked right back out with his son's transfer certificate in hand. Arav, a Class VI student, now studies in a private school.
The reason behind the move sounds almost bureaucratic, but it has a real impact on a real kid's education. Two of the six teachers at Arav's old school got pulled away for SIR (Special Intensive Revision) duty until early August. That left the school short-staffed and, according to Pabitra, unable to run classes properly.
This Is Not Just One Family's Story
Turns out, Arav's move fits a much bigger pattern. Fresh data from the Unified District Information System Plus (UDISE+) report for 2025-26 shows government school enrolment dropped from 12.16 crore students in 2024-25 to 11.89 crore this year. Meanwhile, private school numbers held steady or grew slightly.
The number of government schools also fell faster than the total number of schools nationwide. Something is pushing families out of the public system, and it is not just happening in Odisha.
In West Bengal, government school enrolment slipped from 1.6 crore in 2023-24 to 1.5 crore the following year, with a small recovery to 1.54 crore in 2025-26. More telling is this stat: the number of government schools with zero enrolment in Bengal rose from 3,812 to 4,133 in a single year. Bengal now tops the list of states with empty-shell schools.
Teachers Pulled Into Non-Teaching Work
A government school teacher in Odisha, who did not want to be named, explained the problem plainly. If a teacher is on SIR duty, they cannot take classes. Simple as that. And schools often lack the funds to bring in guest teachers to cover the gap.
Ashok Agrawal, a former Delhi University executive council member and president of the All India Parents Association, points to a pattern here. He says it is almost always government school teachers who get pulled into census work, surveys, or election duty. Private school teachers rarely face this.
"Students enrolled in government schools come from poor economic backgrounds," Agrawal said. "You do not see private school teachers swamped with census or survey duties. Government school teachers are soft targets. It is a design to deprive the poor of education."
That is a strong claim, but the numbers around teacher vacancies back up his frustration. Mitra Ranjan, coordinator of the Right To Education Forum, points out that government elementary schools across India have 7.22 lakh vacant teaching posts. Nearly one lakh schools run with just one teacher handling every subject and every grade.
"Parents can see that their children are not getting quality education in government schools," Ranjan said. "If over seven lakh teaching posts are vacant, the quality of education is bound to suffer."
Contract Teachers, Low Pay, Low Motivation
Agrawal also flagged another trend worth watching: government schools increasingly rely on contract teachers who get paid between ₹10,000 and ₹20,000 a month. That is not a typo. Try running a classroom of 40 kids on that kind of pay and see how motivated you feel by day three.
Put it all together, vacant posts, teachers pulled for non-academic duties, and underpaid contract staff filling the gaps, and you start to understand why parents like Pabitra Sahoo are making the switch to private schools even when it costs more money they might not easily spare.
A Separate Battle Over Fair Assessment
While enrolment numbers tell one story, another group of students is fighting a different battle entirely. Thirty-six CBSE students have moved the Supreme Court over how their Class XII marks got calculated after their board exams in Gulf countries were cancelled due to the Iran-US conflict.
Instead of a standard exam, CBSE used an assessment scheme based on quarterly, half-yearly, and pre-board results. The students argue this method has serious flaws and are asking for either grace marks or a special exam so they can compete fairly for college admissions and other opportunities.
The Supreme Court has asked the Centre and CBSE to respond, with the next hearing set for July 14. For these students, the stakes are just as high as they are for kids like Arav, because in both cases, the system meant to support their education somehow ended up working against them.
