Over 10,000 unrecognized schools in Bihar and Jharkhand enroll 1.6 million students: data

More than 10,000 unrecognized schools are currently operating in Jharkhand and Bihar, enrolling over 1.6 million students and employing upwards of 88,000 teachers, according to the Union education ministry.

Jharkhand has the highest number of such schools in the country, with 5,879 institutions catering to 837,897 students and supported by 46,421 teachers.

Bihar follows with 4,915 unrecognized schools, serving 775,704 students and employing 42,377 teachers.

In Project Approval Board (PAB) meetings held between March and April 2025 to review and approve plans under the Samagra Shiksha scheme for 2025–26, the ministry pointed out that these schools are in violation of Section 19 of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009.

This section mandates that all existing schools must meet the prescribed norms within three years of the Act’s implementation.

“The Act also mandates that if such schools fail to fulfill the norms, the recognition shall be withdrawn, and the school shall cease to function,” the ministry revealed.

Both states have been asked to “take further course of action and issue suitable instructions to the authorities concerned to recognize these unrecognized schools or to take appropriate action as deemed fit at the earliest.”

The figures cited by the ministry are drawn from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE)+ 2023–24 report.

However, this data on unrecognized schools does not appear in the publicly available version of the report released in January 2025. The education ministry has not responded to HT’s requests for clarification.

“These [unrecognized] schools started functioning before the implementation of the RTE Act 2009. The state government has already issued directions for recognition of such schools. We have formed district-level recognition committees for recognition of such schools,” said Sachidanand Diyendu Tigga, administrative officer at the Jharkhand Education Project Council.

The ministry also raised concerns about major discrepancies in the reporting of data on out-of-school children (OoSC) by Bihar and Jharkhand on the PRABANDH portal when compared to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) survey.

According to the ministry, an OoSC is a child between six and 14 years of age who has never been enrolled in an elementary school or who has dropped out and remained absent for 45 consecutive days without prior notice.

States upload this data to PRABANDH, an online platform that tracks implementation of the Samagra Shiksha scheme, a centrally sponsored initiative jointly funded by the center and the states in a 60:40 ratio.

The NSSO defines ‘never enrolled’ children as those who have not attended any school or formal educational institution.

In 2023–24, Jharkhand reported 37,409 OoSC in the 6 to 19 age group on PRABANDH. However, the NSSO survey for 2022–23 showed 107,639 ‘never enrolled’ children in the 6 to 14 age group.

In Bihar, PRABANDH data for 2023–24 listed 33,285 OoSC, while the NSSO reported a significantly larger number of 627,763 ‘never enrolled’ children in 2022–23.

The ministry has advised both states to ensure that data uploaded on the portal is verified and monitored by a responsible officer under the supervision of the State Project Director (SPD).

It also called for a special enrollment drive with the full participation of school management committees to identify and admit all OoSC.

Tigga said, “We will look into discrepancies in the number of OoSCs. We are running the campaign ‘back to school’ to enroll those students who are not going to the schools.”