We have written extensively of how the fading of the nation state due to its increasing inability to collect taxes and control the commanding heights of the economy (which are now in American and Chinese control) have resulted in the state pulling back from the provision of essential public services (click here to read our piece in The Print on this subject). Vijay Jadhav’s article in IndiaSpend regarding the rapid slide of government schools buttresses our point of view. His article helped us understand that every year 2 million kids are being pulled out of government schools by their parents who then pay 10x more to send the same kids to private schools. Mr Jadhav writes:
“The number of students in private unaided schools increased from 92.2 million in 2018-19 to 98.9 million in 2025-26. Government-school enrolment fell from 131.1 million to 118.9 million during the same period. The pandemic interrupted these trends, and since then, government-school enrolment has declined each year, while private-school enrolment has recovered….
Four in 10 Indian schoolchildren were enrolled in private unaided schools in 2025-26, up from 35.4% in 2018-19, according to Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+) data.
Private-school enrolment increased by about 3 million in the past year, while government schools—where 48% of children are enrolled—saw their numbers decline by about 2.7 million.
In 12 states and two Union territories (UTs), more than half the students went to private schools. Bihar, Goa and Jharkhand had less than 20% enrolment in private schools, while West Bengal had under 10%.
Parents are increasingly choosing private schools at lower levels: 71% students in pre-primary or kindergarten and 40% in primary (grades I to V) were in private schools.”
This shift is happening even though it costs parents 10x more to send their kids to a private school. Mr Jadhav says “Choosing a private school also comes at a higher cost. Average annual education-related expenditure was Rs 28,693 per student in private schools, compared with Rs 2,863 in government schools…”
So, what exactly is happening here? Why are parents abandoning Sarkari schools given how much it costs them to send their kids to private? Here is what Mr Jadhav has to say:
“The number of government schools also declined by 78,500 over this period to reach 1.01 million in 2025-26, with the largest decline (more than 51,000) seen in 2019-20. The private sector, in contrast, saw a net increase of about 15,000 schools, adding up to about 342,000 schools in 2025-26, UDISE+ data show.
A 2019 review of private schooling in India noted that the growth was linked to demand from parents and that low-fee private schools account for a substantial part of the sector…
A NITI Aayog report on India’s school education system said the shift towards private schools reflects parental aspirations for better outcomes, with perceptions around English-medium instruction, discipline and employability driving some of the demand. It also raised concerns about quality, equity and regulation in the private sector….
“People feel that if their children want to become doctors or engineers, these courses are in English. So parents feel that if their children are to get these opportunities, they must go to an English-medium school,” said Kulkarni. “The real challenge is how to change this perception among parents.”
Private-school students also performed better than government-school students in reading and arithmetic, although the gap was narrowing, as ISignal reported in August 2025.
“There is dissatisfaction among parents, particularly with municipal, corporation and Zilla Parishad schools, and private-school enrolment is a reaction to that,” said Heramb Kulkarni, retired principal, educationist and social activist based in Maharashtra, calling the choice “a kind of negative voting”….
In addition, private schooling is also associated with social status, Kulkarni said. “There is this tendency for the lower class to imitate the upper class. Wealthy people started sending their children to international or other English-medium schools. Then government employees started imitating them, and eventually even a person like a utensil seller thought that if his child went to such a school, the child’s development would be better,” he said….
“Earlier, people in Bihar did not go towards private schools. But after the Right to Education, in recent years, gradually there has been a growing understanding that education is necessary,” said Anil Kumar Roy, convener of the RTE Forum Bihar.
A 2023 survey of government schools in Bihar found that two-thirds of primary schools and almost all upper-primary schools in its sample had pupil-teacher ratios above 30. Attendance was 23% in primary and 20% in upper-primary schools, and 90% of primary schools lacked a proper boundary wall, playground or library.
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