More than 100,000 schools across the country, including government, government-aided and private sectors, are currently run by just one teacher. The grim reality revealed in Parliament recently is that despite the normal overall student-teacher ratio in the country, there has been gross irregularities in the recruitment and distribution of teachers.
According to UDISE Plus data for 2025-26, there are a total of 1,00,843 one-teacher schools across India. Andhra Pradesh topped the list with 16,357 schools, more than 16 percent of the national figure. Jharkhand followed with 9,827 schools and Maharashtra with 9,269 schools respectively. 8,042 schools in Karnataka, 7,874 in Uttar Pradesh, 7,200 in Rajasthan and 6,769 in West Bengal are headed by only one teacher. These seven states account for about 65 percent of the country’s total one-teacher schools.
The problem is spreading not only to poor or geographically remote states but also to other developed states. Telangana has 4,793 such schools, followed by Tamil Nadu with 3,957 and Assam with 3,1 similarly, Himachal Pradesh with 3,128, Uttarakhand with 2,655 and Chhattisgarh with 2,461 one-teacher schools. Among the best performing states, Kerala has 67, Nagaland 35, Sikkim 31, Ladakh 28, Delhi seven and Andaman and Nicobar Islands has only one school with one teacher.
Minister of State for Education Jayant Chowdhury made this announcement in response to questions raised about teacher vacancies in the Rajya Sabha. According to the ministry, among the national education policy targets, the student-teacher ratio in the country is 19 at primary, 17 at upper primary, 15 at secondary level and 23 at higher secondary level. However, data on one-teacher schools demonstrate that behind this satisfactory overall student-teacher ratio in the country lies a sharp disparity in teacher availability at the local level.
The ministry has not given details of state-wise sanctioned posts or vacancies as the responsibility for recruitment, service conditions and determination of teachers falls under the state government and the UT administration. However, the government said the vacancies were due to retirements, resignations, creation of new posts, changes in staff and changes in student enrollment in rural and tribal districts. The central government has regularly advised states to provide financial assistance under the Comprehensive Education Mission to maintain specific student-teacher ratios and to fill vacancies through transparent and merit-based recruitment processes.