Pune: Maharashtra has succeeded in bringing the dropout rate in Stds I-VIII down to zero, but Stds IX-X remain its biggest challenge, with the secondary-school dropout at 9% in 2025-26, latest UDISE+ report has revealed.The dropout rate is the proportion of students from a cohort enrolled at a given level in a specific school year who are not enrolled in any grade in the following school year.According to the report, while the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act led to a rapid expansion of primary schools, the growth of secondary and higher secondary institutions failed to keep pace. Mahendra Ganpule, spokesperson for the Maharashtra Primary Teachers’ Forum, said, “Relatively fewer schools cater to older students, so access may be one reason students are not continuing into secondary education. Strict implementation of RTE Act ensure that most students are promoted till Std VIII despite annual examinations in Stds III and VIII. Many parents, however, eventually realise that their children are not interested in academics and believe work may be a better option.”In spite of this challenge, Maharashtra reduced its secondary dropout rate from 16% in 2022-23 to 9% in 2025-26, bringing it below the national average of 9.5%. “Boys are now dropping out at higher rates than girls. The crackdown on child marriages across the state has also helped keep more girls in school. Girls are often more serious about their studies and are continuing into higher classes,” Ganpule said.The imbalance becomes clearer when school distribution is examined. While 45.3% of Maharashtra’s schools cater to primary section, only 16.7% are secondary and 11.3% are higher secondary. Yet these levels account for 17.1% and 13.3% of total enrolment, respectively, indicating that fewer institutions serve a large number of students in higher classes.A section of teachers has, however, questioned govt’s claim of no dropouts in elementary classes. An educator heading a state-level teachers’ organisation said, “Visit any govt school, especially in the urban areas, and you will find students leaving school to take up work. We also hear of underage children who have dropped out becoming involved in crime.”Mahesh Palkar, director of secondary education, said not all students classified as dropouts had actually left education. “Many boys opt for Industrial Training Institutes after Std VIII instead of enrolling in Stds IX and X. These students are not captured in the data. Besides, secondary schools cannot be established as densely as primary schools. Primary schools can function with two teachers handling multiple subjects, whereas secondary schools require laboratories and subject-specific teachers. Naturally, their numbers will be lower. Students at that age are also capable of travelling longer distances,” he said.According to Palkar, the state has instructed primary school teachers to ensure that students completing Std VIII were successfully admitted to Std IX, even when families migrated or the next school was located far away. “If class teachers track students till they take admission in another school, these dropout numbers can be reduced further,” he said.Single-teacher schools riseThe UDISE+ report also highlighted a worrying rise in the number of single-teacher schools in Maharashtra. Between 2024-25 and 2025-26, the number of schools operating with only one teacher increased from 8,152 to 9,269. Student enrolment in such schools also rose from 1.5 lakh to 1.8 lakh.Nationally, both the number of single-teacher schools and enrolment in them have been declining. Vijay Kombe, state president of the Maharashtra State Primary Teachers’ Forum, said the actual situation might be worse than reflected in official data. “In many primary schools, one teacher is effectively handling two schools. Students suffer due to the shortage of teachers. However, because parents in rural areas prefer nearby schools for accessibility reasons, children continue to attend these single-teacher schools,” Kombe said.
