Parliament Question: Education in Government schools

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO - 282 ANSWERED ON 18/03/2026 Education in Government schools 282 Shri Vivek K. Tankha: Will the Minister of Education be pleased to state: (a) the total number of Government schools in the country that are currently functioning as "Single- Teacher Schools" (Ekam), State-wise; (b) the number of teaching posts currently lying vacant in Government schools across the country and the percentage of current teachers who are employed on a contractual/ad-hoc basis (Para-teachers) rather than as permanent staff; and (c) whether the Ministry has taken cognizance of the NITI Aayog's recommendation to hand over "hollowed-out" Government schools to private players under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models and if so, the details of any pilot projects currently underway? ANSWER MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN) (a) to (c): A statement is laid on the table of the House. ******STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (A) TO (C) OF RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 282 ANSWERED ON 18/03/2026 ASKED BY HONB’LE MP SHRI VIVEK K. TANKHA REGARDING ‘EDUCATION IN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS’ (a): As per Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2024-25, State/UT-wise number of single teacher government schools in the country are available at https://www.education.gov.in/en/parl_ques. (b) & (c): Education being a subject in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, an overwhelming majority of the schools in the country comes under the administrative control of States/UTs Therefore, school operations, along with the recruitment, service conditions and rational deployment of teachers come under the purview of the respective State governments/UT administrations. Further, recruitment is a continuous process and vacancies arise due to a number of factors like retirement, resignation, increased requirement of teachers because of the enhanced students strength, etc. The Government periodically advises States/UTs to fill vacant posts of teachers, to ensure timely recruitment of teachers by adopting a transparent and merit-based process. As per UDISE+ 2024-25, total number of teachers in government schools are 5149771 out of which 13.7% are on contract or part time/Guest. ******