Despite claims of ‘smart’ school push, Gujarat ranks 14th in public school count

Amid claims of developing ‘smart’ schools in Gujarat, the apparent lackadaisical attitude towards public schools by the Gujarat government has been laid bare. Gujarat does not figure even among the top 14 states with the highest number of government schools.

For 2023-24, Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of public schools with 1.37 lakh institutions, Madhya Pradesh followed with 92,439, and West Bengal was third with 82,307. Bihar, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh have also listed more government schools than Gujarat.

Gujarat has a total of 34,597 government schools. Not only is the number low, but on top of that, 443 government schools have been closed in the last five years.

There were 35,040 government schools in Gujarat in 2019-20, 34,967 in 2020-21, 34,699 in 2021-22, and 34,651 in 2022-23.

The states where the number of government schools increased in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 include Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh.