Financial Survey 2025-26 exhibits training has achieved scale however weak early studying, secondary dropouts, ability mismatches and poor execution threaten long-term outcomes nationally
The 2025-26 Financial Survey’s portrait of Indian training begins with an arresting paradox. India now runs one of many largest education programs on this planet—practically 247 million college students, unfold throughout 1.47 million faculties and taught by over 10 million academics. Enrolment, measured by way of gross enrolment ratios (GER), has climbed steadily throughout phases, significantly on the foundational and preparatory ranges. And but, the survey indicators that the good problem forward is now not entry, however depth: whether or not this immense system can convert education into studying and studying into functionality.
The Financial Survey repeatedly stresses on the significance of foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN), the fundamental abilities kids must succeed in any respect later phases of studying. Reflecting this shift, the Nationwide Schooling Coverage (NEP) treats early childhood care and training as a proper a part of education somewhat than a preparatory add-on.
The info, nonetheless, exhibits solely partial progress. Round 52.8 per cent of presidency and government-aided faculties with Grade I now have some type of preschool facility, both a Balvatika, a co-located anganwadi or each. However participation at this stage stays restricted: GER on the foundational stage (pre-primary to Grade II) is simply 41.4 per cent.
Enrolment rises sharply as soon as kids transfer into formal education. GER jumps to 95.4 per cent on the preparatory stage (Grades III to V) and stays excessive at 90.3 per cent within the center stage (Grades VI to VIII). This distinction underscores early childhood training because the weakest hyperlink within the education chain. Whereas the system has largely succeeded in bringing kids into faculty, it has been much less efficient in guaranteeing that they enter early, be taught properly and progress on equal footing.
The results of those early gaps grow to be seen on the secondary degree, the place enrolment drops sharply. GER falls to 68.5 per cent in Grades IX to XII. The survey hyperlinks this decline primarily to dropouts in the course of the transition from center to secondary faculty and to weak studying foundations constructed within the early years.
College students who lack sufficient FLN battle when the curriculum turns into extra exam-oriented and academically demanding, growing the chance of disengagement and exit. In consequence, the Financial Survey argues that assembly the NEP’s objective of 100 per cent GER as much as secondary degree by 2030 would rely much less on enrolment drives and extra on enhancements in class high quality, instructor capability and the flexibility to trace and help college students as they transfer by way of the system.
Seeking mannequin faculties
If the primary decade of training reform below the Narendra Modi authorities was about scale, the current one is about institutional redesign. The survey factors to the PM-SHRI faculties as emblematic of this shift, an try to construct exemplar public faculties that bundle digital lecture rooms, science labs, sports activities infrastructure, experiential studying and early childhood integration below one roof.
Greater than 13,000 such faculties are actually operational, unfold throughout practically each state. These faculties usually are not meant to face aside as distinctive establishments however to point out what authorities faculties can appear like and encourage comparable adjustments throughout the broader system.
Equally telling is the rise of APAAR (Automated Everlasting Tutorial Account Registry) IDs, digital educational accounts that observe a baby’s academic journey throughout faculty, larger training and skilling. The survey sees this not simply as an administrative change, however as a approach to observe a pupil’s training constantly throughout faculties, faculties and skilling programmes as an alternative of preserving data locked inside particular person establishments. The target is to make mobility between faculties, phases and programs an inbuilt characteristic somewhat than a privilege.
High quality in larger training
The numbers in showcasing the growth of upper training universe are undeniably spectacular. The depend of upper training establishments has risen from about 51,500 to over 70,000 in a decade. Enrolment has crossed 44 million college students, and the nationwide GER now stands at 29.5 per cent, edging nearer to the federal government’s long-term targets. India’s elite institutional structure—IITs, IIMs, AIIMS—has expanded in parallel, together with worldwide campuses overseas, signalling ambition as a lot as capability.
But the survey frames larger training reform as an unfinished experiment, hinging on whether or not flexibility can change rigidity with out diluting requirements. Devices such because the Nationwide Credit score Framework, Tutorial Financial institution of Credit, and a number of entry-exit pathways are supposed to unbundle levels into abilities, credentials and expertise. Over 170 universities have already adopted this framework, suggesting momentum. However the deeper query lingers: can Indian universities shed their credentialism and grow to be areas the place studying adapts as rapidly because the financial system it’s meant to serve?
The lacking center
Maybe the Financial Survey’s most candid admission lies in its remedy of vocational and technical training. The survey is unusually frank about vocational and technical training. It notes that coaching protection stays skinny in sectors the place demand is rising—electronics, healthcare, life sciences and artisan trades—pointing to a persistent mismatch between training provide and labour market wants. Quite than treating this as a coverage failure, the survey frames it as a structural lag: education, skilling and work proceed to function in silos.
To bridge this hole, it argues for earn-and-learn pathways, industry-linked apprenticeships, and credit-bearing work expertise starting as early as secondary faculty. In an financial system the place AI is already reshaping entry-level work, the survey means that delaying publicity to actual jobs till commencement might itself grow to be a drawback.
The lengthy highway forward
Beneath these sector-wise findings, the Financial Survey makes a broader level. Schooling is now not seen solely as a welfare measure or an funding in human capital, however as a take a look at of how successfully the state can ship. Progress now relies upon much less on launching new schemes and extra on execution—higher instructor coaching, coherent curricula, higher institutional autonomy and coordination between the Centre, states and personal gamers.
The survey warns that short-term, cash-driven spending can’t substitute for sustained funding in training high quality and human capital. It argues that increasing enrolment or providing financial help with out bettering educating high quality, studying outcomes, and institutional capability produces restricted long-term beneficial properties.
Utilizing proof from state funds, the survey exhibits that progress and welfare outcomes are stronger when public sources are channelled into productive belongings, corresponding to higher faculties, well-trained academics and clear skill-to-work pathways, somewhat than unfold by way of unconditional transfers. On this context, defending spending on instructor coaching, curriculum reform, faculty infrastructure and abilities improvement issues greater than headline welfare outlays.
The Financial Survey doesn’t supply a triumphant narrative of Indian training. What it provides as an alternative is extra bracing: a recognition that the nation has crossed the edge of entry and now stands earlier than the more durable frontier of high quality, relevance and coherence. The scaffolding is in place. The numbers are transferring in the suitable path. Whether or not the system can now be taught adaptively, truthfully and at scale will decide not simply the way forward for India’s college students, however the credibility of the state that teaches them.
