The Unified District Information System for Education Plus(UDISE+) is a database on schools at state and district level maintained by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India.

The database contains detailed information on schools. This information includes, among others:

• Type of school – private, government or government aided. And among government schools, whether managed by the state, central or municipal government.
• Medium of instruction, residential or day school.
• Classes offered.
• Access to facilities like drinking water, toilets, playgrounds, libraries, pucca buildings, etc.
• Number of students enrolled in each class.
• Social and economic profile of students enrolled in each class.
• Number of teachers, whether those teachers are full-time, on contract or part-time.
• Education level of the teachers – whether graduate, post-graduate and if they have passed B.Ed.

While this database is annual, the latest report is from 2021-22. No data or reports have been published since then.

The entire data for all cities can be obtained from their site here. The site needs registration but is open for all. From OpenCity.in we have downloaded this data and scraped district specific information for seven major cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.

In this two-part analysis we look at how schools in these cities fare in terms access to facilities, enrollment of students, number of teachers, and the pupil-teacher-ratio. We compare these parameters across three types of schools – government (which includes central, state and municipal schools), private, and government-aided private schools.

Number and Type of Schools

One of the main factors when it comes to accessing a school is the fees, and here the type of management plays a large role. A city with more public schools tends to have wider accessibility to schools across the socio-economic spectrum.

Among the cities considered, Pune, Bengaluru and Delhi have the highest number of schools while Chennai has the lowest. Pune also has the largest number of public schools among the districts, followed by Delhi.

In terms of management, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad have the lowest proportion of government schools, while Kolkata has the highest. Interestingly, Mumbai, Pune and Chennai have a high number as well as proportion of government-aided schools, while Kolkata has the least.

The number of schools in the districts could also be a factor of the size. While Pune district is much larger than Chennai district in terms of size, in terms of population Bengaluru is closest to Chennai. It could be that more schools are coming up in the neighbouring districts of Chengalpattu and Thiruvallur, but the low number of schools in Chennai needs more analysis at the ground level.

Facilities in Schools

The facilities available as well as the state of these facilities can make a large difference in the standard of education students receive in a school. Access to drinking water, pucca buildings that are weather-proof, toilets for both boys and girls are non-negotiables for schools. Playgrounds are important resources in the development of children. However, they need a large amount of space, and newer schools closer to the centre of the city tend to not have them. Libraries are important resources for children to foster the reading habit and also introduce them to a world of knowledge outside of their curricula.

Pucca Buildings

Having pucca buildings with good roofs in schools is necessary to ensure education in all weather conditions. Almost, all the large cities do well on this front, with at least one pucca building block in their premises. In all the districts considered government schools lag behind their private counterparts.

However, Government schools in Delhi and Pune lag well behind other cities also with less than 90% having pucca building blocks. Given that these districts also have a high number of government schools, this proportion is a sizable number of schools. This is something that needs to be addressed by their administrations at high priority.

Toilets

Having functional toilets is important for students as they spend a significant part of each day in schools. To compute access to toilets, the type of schools was considered. For instance, a girls only school cannot be mandated to ensure toilets for boys and vice versa. Boys toilets was thus counted only for boys only and coed schools, and girls toilets in girls only and coed schools.

In the case of boys toilets, most districts do well except Hyderabad where less than 90% of government as well as aided schools have functional toilets for boys. Even in private schools the proportion lags behind other districts.

Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai have achieved 100% or near 100% coverage. Once again, in the districts where there is a shortfall, it is the government schools that lag behind their private counterparts.

The story is similar with girls toilets with Hyderabad lagging behind the other large cities, and government schools lagging behind the others in most of them. In the case of Chennai, while government schools have achieved almost 100% coverage, aided and private schools are lagging behind.

Drinking Water

Access to drinking water is as important as access to toilets.

The situation with access to drinking water in the major cities is better than access to toilets. Hyderabad lags behind the other districts, but more than 95% of the government and aided schools have access to drinking water. The rest of the districts have achieved near-100% access to drinking water, but there are shortages seen in Bengaluru and Pune, in government schools.

Playgrounds

Playgrounds are expected to be hit or miss as they are not a mandatory requirement for schools. Schools in poorer areas also struggle to find the space for grounds.

Delhi leads the cities in having the best access to playgrounds with more than 90% of the schools. Mumbai and Pune follow, with government schools in Mumbai doing better than private ones.

The difference between government and private schools is stark in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata, with less than 50% of the government schools equipped with grounds.

Libraries

Libraries are important resources for children to learn outside of their curricula and also to inculcate the reading habit.

All schools in Delhi are equipped with libraries, while more than 90% of the schools in Bengaluru and Mumbai have them. Chennai and Hyderabad lag behind on this facility, with less than 80% of the government schools being equipped with libraries. Once again, government schools lag behind their private counterparts.

Conclusions

With education being a state subject, different states have invested at different levels on schools. This shows up in the number and proportion of government schools in the districts considered. While Delhi and Kolkata have seen a large investment in public schooling, the IT powerhouses Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad lie at the other end of the spectrum.

Mumbai and Pune have gone the way of government aided schools and it can be seen in the much larger presence of aided schools in the state. In terms of facilities too, these aided schools lie between government and private schools.

In all the facilities considered, Hyderabad lags behind all the other cities and requires considerable attention and investment from the Government of Telangana. Even otherwise, in all major cities, government schools lag behind their private counterparts in most or all of the facilities considered. Across the board, public education is something needing attention from their respective state governments.