Odisha ranks 5th in India with around 1,052 schools operating sans recognition

Odisha ranks fifth in the country for having the highest number of schools operating sans valid recognition, most of which are private institutions offering Odia and English mediums of instruction, sources said on Monday.

The Union Ministry of Education has identified around 1,052 unrecognised schools in the State, serving a total of 91,895 students and employing 8,285 teachers. Although these schools are tracked using a Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) code, they lack official recognition from the State government.

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According to the Ministry’s report, Jharkhand leads with the most unrecognised schools at 5,879, followed by Bihar (4,915), Assam (3,630), West Bengal (3,380), and Odisha. In total, there are 22,298 unrecognised schools across the country.

Sanjay Kumar, Secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy, recently urged the states to either grant recognition to such schools by the end of March this year or take appropriate action against them.

Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, no school can operate without government recognition. Section 19 of the Act stipulates that schools established before its enactment must meet required standards within three years of its implementation.

Failure to do so results in withdrawal of recognition and cessation of operations. Despite this, 1,052 unrecognised schools in Odisha continue to appear in the UDISE+ database.

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In his letter, Sanjay Kumar emphasised that many of the unrecognised schools were initially included in the UDISE+ list on the condition that they would meet RTE standards within three years of the Act's implementation in 2010.

However, the Odisha Abhibhabak Mahasangha (a parents’ body) claims that the number of unrecognised schools is much higher.

According to the UDISE+ report for 2023-24, aside from the schools recognised by the State government, Odisha has approximately 12,000 institutions, including government-aided, private, and other types of schools.