Lok Sabha Question No. 311 (STARRED), answered on 2025-08-11
Subject: Closing of Primary Schools in Backward Areas
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Shri Virendra Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 311 ANSWERED ON - 11/08/2025

## CLOSING OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN BACKWARD AREAS

†*311. Shri Virendra Singh:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  decision  to  close  the  primary  schools  does  not  violate  the  Right  to Education of children from remote, poor, tribal and backward areas in the country, if so,
- the details thereof; (b)  whether  the  literacy  rate  and  school  attendance  of  girls  has  declined  after  the closure of schools in the country and if so, the details thereof; (c) whether any assessment has been made regarding deprivation of education due to
- closure of schools, if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government  proposes  to ensure that a proper study of the geographical,  social,  ethnic  and  economic  condition  of  the  area  is  conducted  before closing any school in the country; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## A N S W E R MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

- (a) to (e):  A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (e)  OF  LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 311 ANSWERED ON 11 TH  AUGUST, 2025 ASKED BY SHRI  VIRENDRA  SINGH,  HON'BLE  MEMBER  OF  PARLIAMENT  REGARDING

CLOSING OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN BACKWARD AREAS (a)  to  (e):  Education  is  in  the  Concurrent  list  of  the  Constitution  and  the  opening, merger/closing of schools are within the purview of respective State Government and UT Administration, which are the appropriate Government under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. The Right to Education Act, 2009, is a Central legislation which guarantees free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of 6 to 14 years and lays down minimum norms for neighbourhood schools. However, under the framework of the  RTE  Act,  it  is  the  responsibility  of  the  respective  State  Governments  to  frame detailed  rules,  issue  administrative  orders,  and  implement  the  provisions  of  the  Act through their own education departments and local bodies. To ensure universal access to elementary schools, Section 6 of the RTE Act mandates the establishment of schools by the appropriate government within defined area or neighbourhood limits. Further,  Para  7.4  of  the  National  Education  Policy  2020  underscores  that although  consolidation  of  schools  is  an  option  that  is  often  discussed,  it  must  be carried  out  very  judiciously,  and  only  when  it  is  ensured  that  there  is  no  impact  on Teacher Ratios (PTR) across upper primary and secondary levels, some states have per access.    Therefore,  to  achieve  better  learning  outcomes  and  appropriate  Pupiladopted appropriate strategies to establish the larger schools as aspirations of the public.

The Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL) has developed the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) system to record data on indicators of school education provided by all the States and Union Territories. One of  the  educational  performance  indicators  captured  on  the  UDISE  portal  is  Gender Parity Index (GPI). The GPI, measured as ratio of Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of girls to  GER  of  boys,  stood  at  above  1  at  all  levels  indicating  proportionally  higher participation of girls as compared to boys.

The GPI for the year 2018-19 and 2023-24 is as follows:

|   Year |   Primary |   Upper Primary |   Elementary |   Secondary | Higher Secondary   |
|--------|-----------|-----------------|--------------|-------------|--------------------|
|   1.01 |      1.02 |            1.01 |         1    |        1.03 | 2018-19            |
|   1.03 |      1.02 |            1.02 |         1.02 |        1.07 | 2023-24            |

As  per  the  data  available  on  UDISE+,  advancements  have  been  made  in improving universal access across all levels of school education. This is evidenced by Gross Access Ratio (GAR) for 2018-19 and 2024-25:

|   Year |   Primary |   Upper Primary |   Secondary | Higher Secondary   |
|--------|-----------|-----------------|-------------|--------------------|
|  97.15 |     96.49 |           88.24 |       65.05 | 2018-19            |
|  97.83 |     96.57 |           95.35 |       94.97 | 2024-25            |

GAR : Gross access ratio (GAR) is total villages/habitations having school within specified norm in a year out of total villages/habitations in that year.

To check the health of the educational system and to provide information about the  learning  achievement  of  students,  National  Achievement  Surveys  (NAS)  are conducted at regular intervals.

The  latest  round  of  NAS,  i.e.,  PARAKH  Rashtriya  Sarvekshan  (PRS)  2024 (formerly  National  Achievement  Survey)  was  undertaken  in  December,  2024  to understand the baseline performance under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in  development of competencies among the students at the end of the Foundational, Preparatory, and Middle stages (Grades 3, 6, and 9 respectively). The PRS indicates improvement in average scores of the Grade 3 students in Language and Mathematics as compared to NAS 2021. Further, it also reflects that the performance of children in Grade  3  in  rural  school  is  better  than  urban  schools  and  the  Government  schools performed better than Private schools at Grade 3 level.

The State/UT wise PARAKH 2024 report has been officially released in public domain on 2nd July, 2025. This can be accessed at https://dashboard.parakh.ncert.gov.in/en.

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