The Role of Government in Strengthening School Education in India

India’s school education system serves one of the largest student populations in the world – over 250 million children across pre-primary, elementary, secondary, and senior secondary levels. Managing this at scale requires coordinated government action at every stage. From the village Anganwadi centre preparing a three-year-old for formal schooling, to the Class 12 student preparing for board exams in a rural district, the state plays a defining role in shaping what education looks like, who gets it, and how good it is. Yet despite decades of policy reform and significant public investment, deep structural challenges persist – particularly in rural areas and at the secondary level. This post traces how the Indian government has intervened across different stages of school education, and where the work remains unfinished.

Pre-primary and elementary education: building the first foundation 🔗

Before a child sets foot in Class 1, years of early development determine how ready they are to learn. Recognising this, NEP 2020 restructured the traditional 10+2 school system into a new 5+3+3+4 framework, explicitly bringing children aged 3 to 6 under the formal education umbrella for the first time. The policy emphasises that a strong base of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is essential for better learning outcomes at every subsequent stage.

The role of ICDS and Anganwadi centres 🔗

The primary vehicle for government-led pre-primary education in India – especially in rural areas – has been the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. Launched on 2 October 1975, ICDS delivers a package of six services to children under six years of age and their mothers: supplementary nutrition, preschool non-formal education, immunisation, health check-ups, referral services, and nutrition and health education. These services are delivered through a nationwide network of Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) – community-based spaces established primarily in rural and tribal areas. According to research published in the International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, there are currently approximately 1.3 million Anganwadi centres across India, making ICDS one of the largest integrated child development programmes in the world.

The educational component of ICDS targets children aged 3 to 6, with younger children reached indirectly through their mothers via nutrition and health education. Studies conducted by the National Institute of Nutrition found that ICDS beneficiaries showed higher psychosocial development and improved school enrolment and retention compared to non-beneficiaries. The programme also has a specific mandate to combat gender inequality by ensuring girls receive the same access to services as boys.

However, quality remains a persistent concern. Reports from initiatives like Kalike in Karnataka, run by Tata Trusts, have found that while Anganwadi workers (AWWs) are dedicated frontline staff, many lack adequate training to deliver structured, developmentally appropriate pre-school education. Workers are often overburdened with health, nutrition, and administrative duties, leaving limited time for quality early learning activities.

Despite these gaps, ICDS remains the most critical bridge between home and formal schooling for children in rural and low-income households. The NEP 2020 goal of universal, high-quality ECCE for all children aged 3 to 6 by 2030 – with Anganwadi centres as a key delivery point – continues to drive state-level interventions. States like Andhra Pradesh and Delhi have worked to strengthen the early childhood education component within the ICDS framework through targeted training and on-site support for AWWs.

Elementary education and the Right to Education 🔗

At the elementary level (Classes 1 to 8), the government’s most significant legislative intervention has been the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), which makes free schooling a fundamental right for all children aged 6 to 14. The RTE Act has driven near-universal primary enrolment across the country. The Samagra Shiksha scheme, launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Education, operationalises this by providing an integrated framework for school education from pre-primary all the way to Class 12. The scheme covers 1.16 million schools, over 156 million students, and 5.7 million teachers in government and government-aided schools across India.

A major push at the foundational literacy level came with the NIPUN Bharat programme, launched in 2021 under the Samagra Shiksha umbrella. It targets ensuring that every child achieves basic literacy and numeracy by the end of Grade 3. The results are beginning to show: the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 noted that for the first time in two decades, government school students in Standard III showed significant improvement in reading and arithmetic skills.

Secondary and senior secondary education: access, participation, and the private sector 🔗

At the secondary (Classes 9-10) and senior secondary (Classes 11-12) levels, the challenge shifts from enrolment to accessibility and relevance. India’s secondary education landscape is shaped by both government and private sector providers, and the balance between them is changing rapidly.

Government schemes for secondary education 🔗

The now-subsumed Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), launched in 2009, was the government’s focused push to expand secondary education. Its principal aim was to raise the gross enrolment ratio at the secondary level from 52% (in 2005-06) to 75% over five years, and to provide universal access to secondary schooling for children aged 15 to 16. Between 2009 and 2016, RMSA approved 11,577 new secondary schools and brought about significant infrastructure improvements. It also opened doors for open schooling systems to cater to children who could not participate in formal education.

RMSA was subsequently merged into the Samagra Shiksha scheme in 2018, which treats school education as a seamless continuum. The scheme has been extended from 2021 to 2026 with an approved outlay of ₹2,94,283 crore, with an emphasis on equity, inclusivity, and quality across all levels of school education. In the Union Budget 2025-26, the Department of School Education and Literacy received its highest-ever allocation of ₹78,572 crore, underscoring the government’s continued financial commitment to school education.

Private sector participation and the urban-rural divide 🔗

A significant feature of secondary and senior secondary education in India is the substantial role of the private sector. Private institutions, including NGOs, currently manage approximately 51% of secondary schools and 58% of higher secondary schools in India. This reflects both the state’s capacity limitations and growing parental demand for private education, particularly in urban areas.

However, data from the UDISE+ reports reveal a widening gap between public and private institutions in enrolment. Between 2021-22 and 2024-25, the share of total enrolment in private unaided schools surged from 31.1% to 38.8%, driven not so much by a proliferation of new private schools but by consistently larger average school sizes and an accelerating parental preference for private education. The government-aided sector, once a cornerstone of equitable expansion, has seen a slow contraction in both institutional share and enrolment.

This shift poses a serious equity challenge. Private schools are disproportionately concentrated in urban and semi-urban areas. In rural India, government schools remain the only realistic option for the majority of secondary-level students. Poor infrastructure – missing science labs, libraries, functional toilets, and internet access – continues to weaken the appeal of government secondary schools. ASER 2024 data shows that government school enrolment declined from 72.9% in 2022 to 66.8% in 2024, indicating a shift in preference even in rural pockets where private options are becoming available.

Challenges in school education: quality, teachers, and equity 🔗

Across all levels, three structural challenges cut across India’s school education system: the quality of learning outcomes, the adequacy of teacher preparation, and the unequal distribution of educational resources.

Quality of learning outcomes 🔗

Enrolment figures mask significant learning deficits. NEP 2020 itself acknowledged that over 5 crore children in elementary school have not attained foundational literacy and numeracy. A 2024 survey cited by school-level researchers found that more than 76% of Class 3 students could not read a text appropriate for their grade level. The curriculum and assessment system, which has historically prioritised rote memorisation over critical thinking, is a major contributor to this gap. NEP 2020 and subsequent curriculum frameworks have attempted to move away from this model by emphasising competency-based learning and reducing content load, but implementation at the classroom level remains inconsistent.

Teacher training and vacancies 🔗

India’s most persistent structural problem in school education is the shortage and uneven quality of teachers. As of December 2023, the government acknowledged a shortage of 7,22,413 teachers at the elementary level and 1,24,262 at the secondary level. Overall, around 10 lakh teaching positions across government schools remain vacant. The problem is not just numerical – many practising teachers lack continuous professional development, particularly in high-demand subjects like science and mathematics in rural schools.

The rural-urban teacher distribution is deeply skewed. Research published in the Journal of Development Studies found a net rural deficit of approximately 2,65,950 teachers against an urban surplus of around 19,604, with substantial variation across states. Making matters worse, over 1 lakh Indian schools are run by a single teacher, serving more than 33 lakh students – a clear indicator of multi-role burdens that undercut teaching quality. States like Bihar have shown progress, with teacher vacancies declining from 9,987 in 2022-23 to 7,980 in 2023-24, but states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh continue to face significant staffing challenges.

On the training front, the government’s DIKSHA platform – launched in 2017 and expanded significantly since – has emerged as a key digital teacher training resource, having reached over 2 crore educators with digital training content. NEP 2020 also mandates that a four-year Bachelor of Education degree become the minimum qualification for teachers by 2030, and that the National Professional Standards for Teachers be established as a framework for continuous professional development.

Equitable distribution of schools 🔗

Geographic and social inequities in school access remain a defining challenge. Rural areas frequently lack qualified teachers, particularly in mathematics, science, and English, while girls in certain regions continue to face restrictions on attending school – especially at the secondary level. Families in rural India also face financial constraints that push children, particularly girls, out of school when secondary schooling requires travel, uniforms, or indirect costs.

The government has attempted to address equity through targeted interventions – the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) provide residential secondary schooling for girls from marginalised communities, and have been upgraded under Samagra Shiksha to cover Classes 6 to 12. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme and programmes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao have contributed to improved attendance and reduced gender gaps in enrolment. However, dropout rates among 15-16-year-olds stand at 7.9%, with girls dropping out at a slightly higher rate of 8.1%, pointing to the gap between enrolment gains and actual completion.

The NEP 2020’s five pillars – Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability – offer a comprehensive vision for transforming school education in India. Turning that vision into consistent ground-level reality, however, depends on how effectively policy intent is translated into teacher recruitment, infrastructure investment, and community engagement across India’s enormously diverse states and districts.

What do you think? With private school enrolment rising even in rural areas, is the government’s current strategy sufficient to restore trust in public secondary education – or does the approach need a more fundamental rethink? And given that teacher deployment, not just teacher numbers, is a central problem, what policy levers are most likely to bring qualified teachers to India’s most underserved schools?

References

1. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Child_Development_Services
3. https://ijccep.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40723-023-00117-4
4. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4925843/
5. https://www.tatatrusts.org/our-stories/article/strengthening-early-childhood-education-under-icds-in-karnataka
6. https://samagra.education.gov.in/
7. https://www.idreameducation.org/blog/national-education-policy-2024/
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashtriya_Madhyamik_Shiksha_Abhiyan
9. https://samagra.education.gov.in/docs/samagra_shiksha.pdf
10. https://educationforallinindia.com/role-of-private-and-government-aided-schools-in-indian-education-system-2024-25/
11. https://superkalam.com/current-affairs/articles/inclusive-education-in-india
12. https://theschoolwewant.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/the-top-challenges-with-schooling-in-india-today/
13. https://educationforallinindia.com/shortage-of-teachers-in-india-implications-for-quality-of-education/
14. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220388.2025.2557930
15. https://www.cry.org/blog/education-in-rural-india/