Learning · Sub-pillar 1.2
School quality
The quality of teachers, curriculum and schools, judged by real learning outcomes rather than attendance.
What is school quality?
School quality is sub-pillar 1.2 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the second of four sub-pillars under the Learning pillar. It asks whether India's schools, teachers and curriculum actually teach children, judged by real learning outcomes rather than by how many children are enrolled or present.
Why it matters for 2047
India has solved the problem of getting children into school. Enrolment is near universal in the early years, dropout rates are falling, and the country now has more than a crore school teachers. [1] The question for 2047 is no longer whether children go to school but what happens once they are there.
A school that keeps a child for ten years without teaching her to read fluently, reason with numbers or ask a question has not educated her. For a developed Bharat, the measure of a school is the learning it produces: how far a child in Class 9 has travelled from where she stood in Class 3.
School quality also decides whether the gains of early childhood survive. A child who learns to read by Class 3 can still fall behind if the years that follow are spent on rote preparation for examinations rather than understanding.
Where India stands
- 57%
of Grade 3 students were proficient or above in language in the PARAKH national survey of December 2024, up from 39% in 2021. In mathematics, 65% were proficient, up from 42%.[2]
- 47.2%
was the retention rate at the secondary level in 2024-25: roughly half of children who start school reach the end of Class 10 without leaving. It was 45.6% the year before.[1]
- 8.2%
of secondary-level students dropped out in 2024-25, down from 10.9% the year before. Dropout at the preparatory level was 2.3% and at the middle level 3.5%.[1]
- 1,04,125
schools in India had a single teacher in 2024-25, down about 6% from 1,10,971 the year before. The country had 1.01 crore teachers in total.[1]
The basics have improved. Learning in Grade 3 recovered strongly between the 2021 and 2024 national surveys, dropout rates fell at every level, pupil-teacher ratios are now 10 to 21 depending on the stage, and more schools have electricity, computers and an internet connection. [1][2]
The gaps show up as children grow older. The national survey found persistent weaknesses in mathematics and science in Grades 6 and 9, and the fact that only about 47% of children are retained to the end of secondary school means half of each cohort leaves before Class 10 is complete. [1][2] More than a lakh schools still run on one teacher. [1]
A note on the numbers: PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan is a sample survey of 21 lakh students in 74,000 schools, run by NCERT, and it measures what children can do. UDISE+ is the Ministry of Education's census of every school, and it measures who is in school and with what facilities. The two together describe quantity and quality; neither alone does.
On the 47 BH report card
Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:
- Share of students proficient in language and mathematics in Grades 3, 6 and 9 (PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan).
- Retention rate to the end of secondary school, and dropout rate at the secondary level (UDISE+).
- Number of single-teacher schools and pupil-teacher ratios (UDISE+).
Two lenses on school quality
City and village
47 BH asks whether a government school in a village teaches as well as a private school in a city, and whether the children of migrant workers in a city find a school at all. India's children learn in many kinds of school: government, aided, private, in English and in twenty-two scheduled languages. A fair test of quality compares learning, not labels.
Learn, avoid, protect
- Learn
- What can India learn from countries where teaching is a sought-after profession, where teachers are trained and trusted, and where a child's progress is checked and supported rather than ranked?
- Avoid
- Which mistakes should it avoid, such as schooling that rewards rote examination success over understanding, or reforms that change the syllabus every few years while leaving the classroom untouched?
- Protect
- What of its own should it protect, such as the respect Indian families hold for the teacher, the tradition of learning in many languages, and the public school network that reaches every village?
What this sub-pillar does not cover
Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:
- Reading and arithmetic by age ten, and care in the first years: Learning: Early childhood and foundational learning
- Universities, colleges and research: Learning: Higher education and research
- The pressure on students and young people: Health: Mental health and addiction
- Children kept out of school by labour or early marriage: Family and Society: Family, children and elders
Questions about school quality
How does 47 BH judge school quality?
By what children actually learn, measured in national surveys such as PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan, and by whether they stay in school to the end of secondary, measured by UDISE+. Enrolment and attendance on their own are not treated as quality.
How many children in India finish school?
In 2024-25 the retention rate at the secondary level was 47.2%, meaning roughly half of children who start school are retained to the end of Class 10. The secondary dropout rate that year was 8.2%, down from 10.9% the year before. [1]
Are learning levels in Indian schools improving?
In Grade 3, yes. The PARAKH national survey of 2024 found 57% of students proficient in language and 65% in mathematics, up from 39% and 42% in 2021. The survey found persistent gaps in mathematics and science in Grades 6 and 9. [2]
How many teachers does India have?
UDISE+ 2024-25 counted 1,01,22,420 school teachers, the first time the number has crossed one crore. Pupil-teacher ratios were 10 at the foundational stage, 13 at preparatory, 17 at middle and 21 at secondary. [1]
Sources
- Ministry of Education, "Ministry of Education releases report on Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2024-25 on school education of India", Press Information Bureau, 28 August 2025. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2161543®=48&lang=2
- PARAKH, NCERT, "PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024", national achievement survey conducted on 4 December 2024 across 21 lakh students in 74,000+ schools; results released July 2025. https://parakh.ncert.gov.in/blog/parakh-rashtriya-sarvekshan-2024
47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.