India's schools: access, resources and the household bill.

Until 2021-22 schools reported their totals. From 2022-23 every pupil is a separate record, which the Ministry says removed duplicate entries, so the two stretches are different rulers. Part of the fall at the switch is a cleaner count.

Primary covers five classes, upper primary three, and secondary and higher secondary two each, so compare per class. These are different children at each stage this year, not one group followed over time.

A gross ratio counts pupils of any age, so it can pass 100 when older children are still in lower classes. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe ratios use their own child populations.

A share near half reflects the number of girls and boys of school age as well as enrolment. Gender gaps in access are clearer in the state-by-state gender ratios in Every Cut.

Each state is measured against its own population aged 16 and 17. Children who cross a state border to study raise one state’s ratio and lower another’s, which is how a small territory can pass 100.

Retention compares enrolment at the end of a cycle with the matching starting class. It is estimated from enrolment counts, not by following individual children, and it includes children who left and came back.

Transition is measured at the doors between stages. Pupils who move to vocational courses or to schools outside the system count as not having moved on.

The rate is estimated from enrolment in successive years, so migration and changes in reporting move it too. A published zero can come from that arithmetic and rounding.

Government schools are many and small; private unaided schools are fewer and larger. Other covers the schools the report does not place in the three main groups.

This is an average over all schools. A good national ratio can sit beside crowded classrooms in one place and nearly empty ones in another, and it says nothing about whether teachers are present.

A single teacher may have to teach several classes at once and also run the school. Most of these are small primary schools in villages.

A facility counts if the school reports having it, whether or not it works every day. Boys’ and girls’ toilets are measured against the schools that need them.

The gap between the two bars is schools where the toilet or electricity connection exists but is out of use.

From the household survey of April to June 2025, which asked families where each child studies.

This counts what the family spent on the child’s schooling: fees, books, uniform, transport and other items. Private coaching is counted separately, in the last two charts.

An average over all pupils at the stage, in every type of school. It rises partly because more older pupils study in private schools.

These items add up to the total bill. Many pupils pay no course fee at all, so the fee average mixes those who pay a lot with those who pay nothing.

Coaching here means paid tuition outside school, whether one-to-one or at a coaching centre.

This average is only over pupils who took coaching. Averaged over all pupils, coaching costs much less, because most pupils take none.