Over 1500 J&K schools crippled by empty desks, lone teachers

Srinagar, Jul 4: There are more teachers than students in 146 schools across Jammu and Kashmir—and in over 1,350 others, the teaching faculty can fit in a single selfie.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) has said that in Jammu and Kashmir, at least 146 schools have reported functioning without any student enrolled and over 1355 other schools are functioning with single teachers.
“141 primary schools and five upper primary schools were reported with zero enrolment,” MoE said.
It also said that 1,762 primary schools and 135 upper primary schools had enrolment of less than 15 students, while 5.175 primary schools and 748 upper primary schools had enrolment of less than 30 students.
The Ministry said that a large number of schools with low or zero enrolment was highlighted as a matter of concern.
The MoE advised the Jammu and Kashmir authorities to undertake a detailed analysis of these schools and adopt strategies to improve enrolment.
About the single teacher schools in Jammu and Kashmir, MoE said that there are 1278 primary and 77 upper primary schools with single teachers in the UT.
MoE urged the Jammu and Kashmir authorities to undertake a detailed review and appropriate corrective measures, and ensure compliance with RTF norms at all levels.
Earlier in March, the Jammu and Kashmir government had said that over the past four years, nearly 3200 schools in the UT were either functioning with less than ten or zero student enrolment—leaving over 2500 teachers deployed in empty schools.
The figures were revealed in the Legislative Assembly that said 3192 schools in Jammu and Kashmir reported less than ten or zero enrolment since 2022 including 1494 schools in Jammu and 1698 in Kashmir region respectively.
The house in the March was also informed that 2518 teachers were posted in these schools including 1934 teachers in 1494 schools of Jammu division and 584 teachers in 1698 institutions of Kashmir region.
In 2024 it was reported that nearly 4400 government run schools were closed in Jammu and Kashmir owing to ‘zero or extremely low’ enrolment of students.
In the year there were a total of 23,117 government run schools in Jammu and Kashmir out of which 4394 were deleted from the UDISE data.
In 2024, the official figures had revealed that a total of 12,977 government primary schools were functioning in Jammu and Kashmir. However, after the merger, only 8966 primary schools were functional.
Similarly, 392 government middle schools, three high schools and one higher secondary were deleted from the UDISE+ list.
Overall, Jammu and Kashmir used to have over 28,800 government and private schools. However, as per the official figures, the count has reduced to nearly 24,00 schools. (KNO)