Meghalaya has more schools than necessary, leading to skewed enrollment

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJanuary 17, 2025

Highlighting the challenges faced by the education sector, Commissioner & Secretary Vijay Mantri on Friday said the number of schools in Meghalaya is disproportionately large compared to its population size.

“For example, although Tripura has a larger population, it has only one-third of the schools that Meghalaya has. Manipur, with a similar population, has only 4,617 schools. Additionally, Meghalaya has an unusually high number of aided schools, whereas other states have relatively few. Nationally, aided schools account for less than 5% of the total number of schools, but in Meghalaya, this proportion is 29%,” he said.

He added, “For comparison, Kerala, with a population of 3.34 crore (Census 2011), which is roughly ten times that of Meghalaya, has the same number of schools—15,864 (source: Ministry of Education, Govt. of India, 2023-24). Similarly, Himachal Pradesh, which has more challenging terrain than Meghalaya, has 17,826 schools, serving a population of 68.64 lakh.”

“This disproportionate number of schools in Meghalaya has resulted in skewed student enrollment, with many schools reporting very low student numbers, including some with zero or just a few students,” he added.

He informed that there are over 206 schools with zero enrolment and 2,269 schools with single-digit enrolment. Among these, there are 18 deficit and adhoc schools with zero enrolment and 1,141 schools with single-digit enrolment. In SSA, there are 30 schools with zero enrolment and 268 with single-digit enrolment. In government schools, there are 11 schools with zero enrolment and 132 with single-digit enrolment.

Mantri also pointed out that one reason for the large number of schools is that a single school is often counted multiple times in the data. This occurs when a private school seeks multiple grants from the government. For example, a school named XYZ School may be counted as four separate schools, even though it is managed and owned by a single entity, as illustrated below:

XYZ LP SSA School – SSA
XYZ UP School – Adhoc
XYZ Secondary School – Deficit
XYZ Higher Secondary School – Private

“In this way, the 6,702 schools in our state can actually be grouped into 3,029 distinct schools. If we eliminate the double counting and consolidate the various government grants, the actual number of schools in the state would be 10,867 (7,838 + 3,029 = 10,867),” he said.

Total Schools: 14,540