Up to 4,400 government-run schools in Jammu and Kashmir have been closed due to low student enrollment. Out of the region’s 23,117 government schools, 4,394 have been excluded from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) data. The School Education Department identified over 1,200 government schools with low student enrollment and implemented their merger based on catchment areas and student feasibility. In April 2022, the department announced plans to merge 720 government-run schools with insufficient student enrollment.
The primary school category was the most affected, with the total number of government primary schools decreasing by nearly 30 percent. Following mergers, there are now 8,966 operational primary schools, down from 12,977.
Additionally, 392 government middle schools, three high schools, and one higher secondary school have been removed from the UDISE+ list. The data also shows that out of 5,688 private and other educational institutions, only 5,555 are currently functional. Jammu and Kashmir previously had 28,805 government and private schools, but the number has now decreased to 24,279, indicating a significant reduction of 4,526 schools.
In the month of June, 2024, Alok Kumar, the Administrative Secretary of the School Education Department, said that the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in government schools was “skewed,” resulting in the closure of several schools.
Kumar said that the reduction of schools has nothing to do with the quality of education. These schools had low enrollment, and the human resources got spread out. He added that many schools in Jammu and Kashmir lacked adequate infrastructure and needed updates, particularly when they began introducing new courses such as coding programs.
The closure and merging of schools highlight the ongoing challenges in maintaining student enrollment in various regions of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as in other states across India.
