Four in Ten Indian Children Now Go to a Private School
In 2025-26, 9.89 crore Indian children were enrolled in private unaided schools: 40.0% of all school children. Government schools enrolled 86 lakh fewer children than two years before. The numbers show where enrolment moved. They do not show why.
In 2025-26, India's schools enrolled 24.72 crore children. Of them, 9.89 crore, or 40.0%, were in private unaided schools. Government schools enrolled 11.89 crore, or 48.1%. Government-aided schools, which are privately managed but paid for by the state, enrolled 10.0%. [1, 2]
Three years earlier, in 2022-23, the private unaided share was 33.4%. It rose to 36.3% in 2023-24, 38.8% in 2024-25 and 40.0% in 2025-26. The government share fell below half in 2024-25, to 49.2%, and kept falling. [1]
What moved
Between 2023-24 and 2025-26, government schools enrolled about 86 lakh fewer children. Private unaided schools enrolled about 88 lakh more. Total enrolment fell by about 8 lakh over the same two years. [1]
One state carries much of it. In Uttar Pradesh, private unaided enrolment rose by 33.2 lakh in those two years, more than a third of the national rise, while government enrolment fell by 16.8 lakh. The private share in Uttar Pradesh went from 47.4% to 54.0%. Assam, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh each moved four points or more. [1]
Where
The national figure hides very different countries.
| State or UT | Children enrolled, 2025-26 | Private unaided share |
|---|---|---|
| Nagaland | 4.1 lakh | 67.3% |
| Manipur | 6.7 lakh | 65.6% |
| Telangana | 76.8 lakh | 64.5% |
| Haryana | 58.3 lakh | 61.9% |
| Uttarakhand | 24.1 lakh | 61.7% |
| Uttar Pradesh | 427.0 lakh | 54.0% |
| Karnataka | 117.1 lakh | 50.0% |
| Tamil Nadu | 124.0 lakh | 50.0% |
| Delhi | 44.5 lakh | 43.3% |
| Gujarat | 115.7 lakh | 39.5% |
| Maharashtra | 216.3 lakh | 31.1% |
| Kerala | 60.4 lakh | 28.8% |
| Odisha | 77.9 lakh | 21.1% |
| Bihar | 207.0 lakh | 14.8% |
| West Bengal | 177.3 lakh | 6.3% |
Source: UDISE+ dashboard, enrolment by school management, read 15 October 2026. [1]
A child in Telangana is about ten times more likely to be in a private unaided school than a child in West Bengal. Kerala sits low on this list for a different reason: more of its children are in aided schools, which are privately run and publicly funded.
What the numbers cannot tell us
UDISE+ counts children by the kind of school they are enrolled in. It does not record why a family chose that school. [2]
It does not show that the same families moved. Total enrolment is falling, and a smaller cohort entering school changes the shares on its own. Some children counted in a government school one year and a private school the next did move. The data cannot say how many.
It does not show that private schools teach better. A rising private share is evidence of where families put their money. It is not evidence of what their children learned.
What it does say
Families are paying where they believe a school lowers a risk for their child. That is a reasonable thing for a parent to do.
The cost of that belief is large. India's household survey of school spending for 2025 found that families spent an average of ₹2,863 a year per child in a government school and ₹28,693 in a recognised private unaided school, about ten times as much. [3] We look at what that money buys in The Private Tax.
When paying is the way out, the children whose families cannot pay are the ones left in the system that is losing everyone else. That is why Ilanooo's position is that private schools are where change can start, and a public system good enough that no family has to buy its way out is where it has to end. It is also why the reward problem matters more than any new syllabus: as long as the paid route looks safer at the next selection gate, families will keep taking it.
Sources
- UDISE+ dashboard, official enrolment by school management, all-India and by state, 2022-23 to 2025-26, read on 15 October 2026. Shares are computed from those counts.
- Ministry of Education, UDISE+ 2025-26 release: PIB, 7 July 2026.
- Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, NSS Report No. 595, Comprehensive Modular Survey: Education, 2025 (NSS 80th round), statement on average expenditure per student by type of school, rural and urban combined.