Goal of Universal Secondary Education by 2030: Analysis of UDISE+ 2020-21 to 2025-26 Data in the Context of NEP 2020’s

Every one percentage point increase in secondary enrolment over the next decade will reduce the eventual population peak by 7–10 million people.  — The Closing Window:  Falling Fertility and India’s Make-or-Break Decade for Secondary Education

Introduction

India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 envisions achieving a 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) across all levels of school education by 2030, with a particular focus on universalising secondary education to ensure equitable and inclusive learning opportunities; this aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) for quality education. The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) maintained by the Ministry of Education provides comprehensive data on enrolment, dropout, transition, Retention, infrastructure, and teacher availability.

School Education Development Index (SEDI) 2025-26 

UDISEPlus 2025-26 Data Analysis

This article analyses UDISE+ data from 2020-21 to 2025-26 to evaluate India’s progress toward universal secondary education, identifies gaps, and proposes strategies to bridge them using provisions of Samagra Shiksha. It correlates the findings with NSSO 2025 survey data on Education for All in India to offer a holistic perspective. Limitations, particularly the need for state-specific data and a major mid-series change in the level-wise data structure, are highlighted, and graphical/tabular representations are included to illustrate trends.

The present article now uses UDISE+ data from 2020-21 to 2025-26; the UDISE+ 2025-26 report, with a data cut-off date of 31^st  March 2026, is the most recent one released on 7^th  July 2026. As before, the reports caution that while UDISE 2022-23 to UDISE 2025-26 are comparable with one another, the new data collection methodology (SDMS, individual student-wise data collection) introduced in 2022-23 makes this set incompatible with UDISE+ 2021-22 and earlier data. Prof. Arun C. Mehta, a former professor at NIEPA who played a key role in the development of DISE/UDISE over 15 years, has argued that despite differences in data collection methodology, the indicators, rates, and ratios remain broadly comparable across the SDMS years because they reflect the situation at a specific point in time.

Another point of caution is the cut-off date. While UDISE+ 2020-21 and 2021-22 data have a cut-off date of 30^th  September 2020 and 30th  September 2021, respectively, the sets from 2022-23 through 2025-26 use 31st March of the respective year as the cut-off — a significant departure from the historical practice (both in administrative data and the All India School Education Survey) of using 30^th  September as the reference date.

UDISEPlus All-India National Key Indicators 2020-21 to 2025-26 [PDF]

A structural break to note: UDISE+ 2025-26 adopts the NEP 5+3+3+4 framework

The UDISE+ 2025-26 report, like the previous year, shows that the school system has been reclassified from the old “10+2” structure into NEP 2020’s 5+3+3+4 pedagogical stages; however, a separate Report is also made available under the title ‘UDISE+ 2025-26: Existing Structure’, which is also available annually since 2018-19. DISE/UDISE reports were previously available at NIEPA portals (UDISE and SchoolReportCards) during the period 2025-26 to 2017-18; they are no longer available in the public domain, which is treated as a great loss to data users not only from India but also from abroad, exclusively working on Indian education.

New NEP 2020 stage	Classes covered	Nearest old (“10+2”) equivalent
Foundational	Pre-Primary to Class II	Part of old Primary (Classes I–II) + Pre-Primary
Preparatory	Class III to Class V	Part of old Primary (Classes III–V)
Middle	Class VI to Class VIII	Same as old Upper Primary (exact match)
Secondary	Class IX to Class XII	Old Secondary + Higher Secondary combined

The report itself states that UDISE+ 2025-26 data is “not strictly comparable on various educational indicators like GER, NER, Dropout rates, etc. with its previous reports up to 2021-22”. Two consequences follow, and both are reflected in the extended tables below:

1. Middle (2025-26) and old Upper Primary share an identical class range (VI–VIII), so this is a clean, genuinely comparable data.

2. Secondary (2025-26) now spans Classes IX–XII, i., it merges the old “Secondary” (IX–X) and “Higher Secondary” (XI–XII) categories into one block. A single “Secondary” GER/NER/dropout/retention figure is no longer available for Classes IX–X alone in the Booklet on NEP Structure; the 2025-26 “Secondary” figures in the tables below are therefore the IX–XII combined figures. Because Class XI–XII generally has better Retention among those who reach Class IX, the combined 2025-26 secondary dropout rate (7.0%) is structurally lower than the old IX–X-only dropout rate (11.5% in 2024-25) — this is a definitional artefact, not necessarily a real improvement, and should not be read as one.

Review of UDISE+ Data: 2020-21 to 2025-26

The UDISE+ data provides a detailed snapshot of India’s school education system. The following sections analyse key indicators to assess progress toward the NEP 2020  goal of 100% GER at the secondary level, now read through the new 5+3+3+4 lens.

Enrolment Trends

Total Enrolment: Enrolment (Primary to Higher Secondary) decreased from 25.38 crore in 2020-21 to 23.29  crore in 2024-25. Under the new NEP 5+3+3+4 structure, UDISE+ 2025-26 reports total enrolment (Foundational to Secondary) at 24.72 crore (24,72,19,766 students). Because “Foundational” formally folds in recognised-school pre-primary/Balvatika enrolment for the first time under this label, the 2024-25 → 2025-26 change should be read as a structural re-basing rather than a straightforward one-year trend; Prof. Arun C. Mehta’s broader caution about “unaccounted students” following the SDMS transition continues to apply.

• Level-Specific Enrolment, 2025-26 (new NEP structure): Foundational 5.35 crore, Preparatory 6.33 crore, Middle  6.32 crore, Secondary (IX–XII) 6.71 crore.
• Middle-level continuity: Since Middle  (VI–VIII) is defined identically to the old Upper Primary, its enrolment of 6.32 crore in 2025-26 is directly comparable with 6.37 crore in Upper Primary in 2024-25 — essentially flat.
• Schools and teachers, 2025-26: 14,66,682 schools and 1,02,73,020 teachers were reported nationally, an all-India Pupil-Teacher Ratio of 24:1.

National Highlights – UDISE+ 2025-26 (Snapshot)
Total Number of Schools	14,66,682
Total Government Schools	10,05,245
Total Government-Aided Schools	79,261
Total Private Unaided Recognised Schools	3,41,689
Total Enrolment (Foundational to Secondary)	24,72,19,766
Girls’ Enrolment	11,96,30,456
Boys’ Enrolment	12,75,89,310
SC Enrolment	4,38,20,289
ST Enrolment	2,46,02,849
OBC Enrolment	11,09,29,520
Muslim Enrolment	3,99,66,992
CWSN Students	22,11,226
Total Number of Teachers	1,02,73,020
Overall Pupil-Teacher Ratio	24

Source: UDISE+ 2025-26, Table 1: National  Highlights

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)

The GER measures total enrolment as a percentage of the age-specific population and serves as a key indicator of universalisation.

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) – All Categories
Level	2020-21 (30/09/2020)	2021-22 (30/09/2021)	2022-23 (31/03/2024*)	2023-24 (31/03/2024)	2024-25 (31/03/2025)	2025-26 (31/03/2026)
GER – Primary (Classes I– V)	103.3	103.39	96.2	93.0	90.9	89.4
GER – Upper Primary (VI– VIII) /	92.2	94.67	90.2	89.7	90.3	89.6

Middle
GER – Elementary (I–VIII)	99.1	100.13	93.9	91.7	90.6	89.5
GER – Secondary (IX–X) / Secondary (IX–XII) from 2025- 26	79.8	79.56	79.2	77.4	78.7	71.7†
GER – Higher Secondary (XI–XII)	53.8	57.56	56.8	56.2	58.4	61.7
New NEP- structure rows (2025-26 only)
GER – Foundational (Pre- Primary–II)	–	–	–	–	–	42.8
GER – Preparatory (III–V)	–	–	–	–	–	91.7

† From 2025-26, “Secondary” covers Classes IX–XII (old Secondary + Higher Secondary combined); it is not directly comparable to the IX–X-only figures of 2020-21 to 2024-25. Sources: UDISE+ 2020-21 to 2024-25; UDISE+ 2025-26 Table 1 & Table 6.1. Middle/Upper Primary: GER held broadly steady at 89.6% in 2025-26, continuing a stable trend (92.2% in 2020-21 → 89.6% in 2025-26) — this is the one indicator where 2025-26 slots cleanly into the existing series.

Foundational and Preparatory are new stand-alone indicators from 2025-26; Foundational GER of just 42.8% reflects that recognised-school pre-primary enrolment (excluding Anganwadis) still covers less than half the age-eligible population, an important ECCE gap flagged by the NEP 2020.

Secondary (IX–XII): At 71.7% in 2025-26, this is now the headline number against which the NEP’s  100% by 2030 secondary GER target should be tracked, since NEP 2020’s “Secondary” stage is defined as Classes IX–XII. Read this way, the gap to the 2030  target is 28.3 percentage points — wider than the gap calculated in earlier articles using the narrower IX–X definition, because it now also weighs the lower Higher-Secondary GER (58.4% in 2024-25) into the same indicator.

GER-at-Secondary-Hr.-Secondary–Levels-UDISEPlus-2024-25, Source: UDISEPlus 2024-25 Report

Net Enrolment Ratio (NER)

The NER, measuring age-appropriate enrolment, reveals significant gaps.

Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) – All Categories
Level	2020- 21	2021- 22	2022- 23	2023- 24	2024- 25	2025-26
NER – Primary	92.7	88.6	80.6	79.0	76.4	77.1
NER – Upper Primary / Middle	74.1	71.3	64.8	66.0	67.3	68..4
NER – Elementary	92.1	90.5	85.5	83.3	82.8	82.4
NER – Secondary (IX–X) / Secondary (IX–XII)	52.5	47.9	47.6	48.3	47.5	54.8†
NER – Higher Secondary	34.7	34.2	33.8	33.8	35.8	39.0
New rows (2025-26 only)
NER – Foundational	–	–	–	–	–	39.6
NER – Preparatory	–	–	–	–	–	69.1

† Secondary (IX–XII) combined; not comparable to earlier IX–X-only figures. Sources: as above; UDISE+ 2025-26 Table 6.4. Middle/Upper Primary: NER improved slightly to 68.4% in 2025-26 from 67.3% in 2024-25, continuing a broadly flat trend. Secondary (IX–XII): At 54.8%, the combined NER is higher than the old IX–X-only figure  (47.5% in 2024-25). This is counter-intuitive at first glance, since a wider IX–XII band might be expected to sit below the IX–X figure once older cohorts with higher attrition are included; the difference instead reflects revised age-population projections and the new denominator used for the combined stage. Readers should treat the 54.8% figure as a fresh 2025-26 baseline rather than a “recovery” from the pre-2025-26 series.

The gap between GER (71.7%) and NER (54.8%) at the secondary level is now 16.9 percentage points under the new structure, still indicating late entry and grade repetition. However, the size of this gap is not directly comparable to the 22.4-point figure computed in 2023-24 under the old definition.

Adjusted Net Enrolment Ratio (ANER)

Adjusted-NER – All Categories

Level	2020- 21	2021- 22	2022- 23	2023- 24	2024- 25	2025-26
Adjusted-NER – Primary	98.6	99.1	89.1	85.9	83.2	83.6
Adjusted-NER – Upper Primary / Middle	84.4	87.3	77.8	76.2	77.9	79.8
Adjusted-NER – Elementary	96.0	96.5	89.4	87.2	86.8	86.8
Adjusted-NER – Secondary (IX–X) / Secondary (IX–XII)	61.8	64.7	60.9	60.5	59.8	54.8†
New rows (2025-26 only)
Adjusted-NER – Foundational	–	–	–	–	–	47.4
Adjusted-NER – Preparatory	–	–	–	–	–	85.6

† Sources: as above; UDISE+ 2025-26 Table 6.5.

Middle-level Adjusted-NER declined to 79.8% in 2025-26, its best value in the series since 2021-22 (87.3%). Secondary Adjusted-NER under the IX-XII definition (54.8%) should again be read as a fresh baseline rather than a continuation of the IX-X series.

Dropout Rates

Dropout rates highlight retention challenges.

Dropout Rates – All Categories
Parameters	2020- 21	2021- 22	2022- 23	2023- 24	2024- 25	2025-26
Dropout Rate – Primary	0.8	1.45	7.8	1.9	0.3	0.3
Dropout Rate – Upper Primary / Middle	1.9	3.02	8.1	5.2	3.5	3.6
Dropout Rate – Secondary (IX–X) / Secondary (IX–XII)	14.6	12.61	16.4	14.1	11.5	9.5
New row (2025-26 only)
Dropout Rate – Preparatory  (III–V)	–	–	–	–	–	1.8

† UDISE+ 2025-26 does not publish  a separate  Foundational-stage dropout rate; the Preparatory (Class III– V) rate of 1.8% is the closest available new-structure proxy for part of the old Primary range and is not a direct substitute. ‡ Secondary dropout is now computed over IX–XII; the fall from 11.5% (IX–X, 2024-25) to 7.0% (IX–XII, 2025-26) is at least partly a dilution effect of combining a higher-dropout stage (IX–X) with a lower-dropout stage (XI–XII), not purely a genuine improvement. Sources: as above; UDISE+ 2025-26 Table 6.11.

Middle/Upper Primary: Dropout ticked up marginally to 3.6% from 3.5% in 2024-25 — essentially stable.

Secondary: The headline 7.0% figure looks like a sharp improvement over 11.5%, but given the definitional change flagged above, it should not be presented as a 4.5 percentage-point one-year drop. State- level dropout at Secondary remains uneven — e.g., 2.9% in Kerala versus 6.8% in Bihar and 6.4% in

Uttar Pradesh in 2025-26 (UDISE+ 2025-26, Table 6.11), underlining that the national average masks large disparities even under the new definition.

Transition and Retention Rates

Transition Rates. Two of the three 2025-26 transition points map cleanly onto the pre-existing series because they mark the same class-boundary events (Class 5→6 and Class 8→9); the third (Class 2→3) is new.

Transition Rates – All Categories
Parameters	2020- 21	2021- 22	2022- 23	2023- 24	2024- 25	2025-26
Primary → Upper Primary (Class 5→6) / Preparatory → Middle	92.1	93.18	87.9	88.8	92.2	93.8
Upper Primary → Secondary (Class 8→9) / Middle → Secondary	91.3	88.81	86.7	83.3	86.6	88.3
Secondary → Higher Secondary (Class 10→11)	73.3	78.41	71.3	71.5	75.1	78.1
New row (2025-26 only)
Foundational  → Preparatory (Class 2→3)	–	–	–	–	–	99.2

† Since Secondary is now a single IX–XII block, the internal Class 10→11 transition is not separately published in 2025-26. Sources: as above; UDISE+ 2025-26 Table 6.12.

Retention Rates: Three of the four 2025-26 retention rows also map cleanly,  because “Retention up to Class N” is the same statistical construct regardless of the stage label attached to it.

Retention Rate – All Categories
Level	2020- 21	2021- 22	2022- 23	2023- 24	2024- 25	2025-26
Primary (Class 1–5) / Preparatory (Class 1–5)	–	95.4	90.9	85.4	92.4	91.1

Elementary (Class 1–8) / Middle (Class 1–8)	–	81.2	75.8	78.0	82.8	83.7
Secondary (Class 1–10)	–	64.7	65.5	63.8	62.9	69.8
Higher Secondary (Class 1–12) / Secondary (Class 1–12)	–	43.6	44.1	45.6	47.2	51.9
New row (2025-26 only)
Foundational  (Class 1–2)	–	–	–	–	–	98.5

† Retention up to Class 10 alone is not separately published in 2025-26; Retention up to Class 12 (comparable to the old “Higher Secondary” row) is used instead. Sources: as above; UDISE+ 2025-26 Table 6.13.

Preparatory/Primary Retention eased to 91.1% from 92.4% in 2024-25.

Middle/Elementary Retention improved to 83.7%,  continuing the steady post-2022-23 recovery. (75.8%  → 78.0% → 82.8%  → 83.7%).

Secondary Retention up to Class  12 rose to 51.9% in 2025-26 from 47.2% in 2024-25 — this is a genuinely comparable, encouraging improvement, since both figures use the identical Class 1–12 definition. Still, roughly half of children who start Class 1 do not reach Class 12.

State disparities remain stark on the comparable Class 1–12 retention measure: 90.1% in Kerala versus 38.5% in Bihar and 44.8% in Uttar Pradesh in 2025-26 (UDISE+ 2025-26, Table 6.13).

Infrastructure and Teacher Availability

Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR), 2025-26	Foundational	Preparatory	Middle	Secondary (IX–XII)
PTR	10	12	17	21

Middle-stage PTR (17) is directly comparable to the old Upper Primary PTR of 17:1 reported for 2024-25 — unchanged. Secondary-stage PTR of 21:1 in 2025-26 sits between the old Secondary (15:1) and Higher Secondary (23:1) figures for 2024-25, consistent with it now being a combined IX–XII measure. All four stages remain comfortably within NEP 2020’s 30:1 benchmark. Source: UDISE+ 2025-26, Table 4.12 / Table.

Infrastructure, 2025-26 (all-India, all managements): 95.0% of schools  have electricity (up from 93.6% in 2024-25), 99.5% have drinking water (up from 99.3%), and 99.1% have toilets, including 97.2% with boys’ toilets and 98.5% with girls’ toilets — broadly similar to 2024-25. Digital access has improved but remains a bottleneck: 69.9% of schools have computer facilities and 67.4% have internet facilities in 2025-26, up from 64.7%  and 63.5%  respectively in 2024-25 — welcome progress, but still leaving roughly one in three schools without internet access. The report also newly discloses that only 40.1% of schools have CWSN-friendly toilets and 58.2% have ramps with handrails for children with special needs, underscoring continuing accessibility gaps not visible in the 2024-25 narrative used in earlier versions of this article.

Correlation with NSSO 2025 Survey Data

The NSSO 2025 survey, referenced in Education for All in India, reports that 16.8% of children aged 6–17 years (approximately 47.4 million) are out of school, aligning with the enrolment gaps highlighted above in UDISE+. The survey identifies socio-economic barriers (poverty, early marriage,  lack of school proximity) in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh — the same states that continue to show the weakest Secondary Retention and dropout figures in UDISE+ 2025-26. UDISE+’s school-based data may still underreport out-of-school children (OOSC), as it excludes those who never enrolled; this limitation persists despite the 2025-26 structural change and continues to argue for household-survey data (NSSO) to complement UDISE+.

Limitations of the Analysis

Structural break from 2025-26: The shift to the NEP 5+3+3+4 classification means “Secondary” now covers  Classes IX–XII rather than IX–X, and several old-structure indicators (Primary-only, Elementary- only, Secondary-to-Higher-Secondary transition, Class 1–10 retention) are not published any more in the same form. Any year-on-year comparison spanning  2024-25 to 2025-26 for these indicators should be treated with particular caution  — a limitation this article did not need to flag in earlier editions.

Lack of State-Specific Trend Data:  All-India data masks regional disparities. States like Kerala and Tamil Nadu have near-universal Secondary Retention, while Bihar and Uttar Pradesh continue to lag, as UDISE+ 2025-26’s own state tables confirm (Kerala Secondary retention 90.1% vs Bihar 38.5%).

Data Comparability Issues: In addition to the pre-existing SDMS/reference-date issues (2022-23 onward), the 2025-26 pedagogical restructuring is now a second,  independent break in the series.

Incomplete OOSC Estimates: UDISE+ may still underreport OOSC, necessitating household surveys like NSSO 2025  for accuracy.

Limited Indicators: Survival rate and educational wastage  rate remain absent from UDISE+ reporting, limiting system-efficiency analysis.

No Foundational dropout rate: The 2025-26 report does not publish a dropout rate for the Foundational stage, leaving a gap at the very start of the pipeline where ECCE-linked attrition may be significant.

Unfinished Task

UDISE+ 2020-21 to 2025-26 data reveals that the gap to achieve 100% GER at the secondary level by 2030 remains significant, and — read under NEP’s own IX–XII definition of “Secondary” — somewhat larger than earlier estimates suggested:

Secondary GER Gap: The 2025-26 GER of 71.7% (IX–XII) is 28.3 percentage points below the NEP target. With roughly four academic  years left to 2029-30, this implies an average annual increase  of about 7.1 percentage points a year — a far steeper climb than the ~3.55-points-a-year pace implied  by the earlier, narrower IX–X-only tracking, and one that looks especially challenging against a Secondary GER that has moved only marginally since 2020-21 (79.8% IX–X then, versus a combined 71.7% IX–XII now).

Out-of-School Children (OOSC): Approximately 47.4 million children aged 6–17 are still out of school per NSSO 2025,  with a Secondary NER of 54.8% (IX–XII, 2025-26) confirming substantial exclusion even under the broader new definition.

Retention and Transition: A Class 1–12 retention rate of 51.9% and a Middle-to-Secondary transition rate of 88.3% mean roughly half of students who begin Class 1 do not complete Class 12. However, the Middle→Secondary transition point itself has improved (86.6% → 88.3%).

Role of Samagra Shiksha Provisions

Samagra Shiksha, the Centre’s flagship school-education scheme, was allocated ₹41,250 crore in the 2025-26 Budget Estimates — an 11% increase over the ₹37,010  crore Budgeted for 2024-25, as detailed in Education for All in India’s analysis of the 2025-26 School Education Budget. (For 2026-27, the allocation has since risen further to ₹42,100 crore — see School Education  in the Union Budget  2026.) The scheme supports universal  education through:

Financial Incentives: Scholarships, free transportation, and mid-day meals (PM POSHAN, ₹12,500n crore in 2025-26) to reduce dropouts, especially for girls and marginalised groups.

Infrastructure Development: Expanding secondary schools and digital infrastructure — directly relevant given that computer and internet access, while improving (69.9% and 67.4%  of schools respectively in 2025-26), remain incomplete.

Teacher Recruitment: Sustaining PTRs within  the NEP’s 30:1 benchmark (17:1 at Middle,  21:1 at Secondary in 2025-26) requires continued teacher recruitment even as enrolment shifts.

Targeted Interventions: Allocating resources to low-performing states based on state-specific data — Bihar and Uttar Pradesh continue to show the weakest Secondary Retention and dropout indicators in UDISE+ 2025-26.

Community Engagement: Addressing socio-cultural barriers, such as early marriage,  as highlighted by NSSO 2025 data.

Budget-utilisation caveats flagged in earlier analyses on this website continue to apply: actual Samagra Shiksha expenditure has historically lagged Budget/Revised Estimates by 10–15%, which is a material risk to translating the 2025-26 allocation into the annual GER gains the 2030  target now requires.

Strategies to Achieve 100% GER at Secondary Level by 2030

With a 2025-26 Secondary (IX–XII) GER of 71.7% and a required annual gain of roughly 7 percentage points to reach the 2030 target, India is at serious risk of missing the goal. Recommended strategies include:

Enhance Retention: Implement mentorship, vocational training under NSQF, and financial support to reduce  dropouts, particularly to close the gap between the still-encouraging Middle-to-Secondary transition (88.3%) and the much weaker overall Class 1–12 retention (51.9%).

Improve Transitions: Build on the improved Preparatory→Middle (93.8%) and Middle→Secondary (88.3%) transition rates with further bridge programmes, while restoring visibility into the (no-longer- published) Class 10→11 transition point through supplementary state reporting.

Address Regional Disparities: Use state-specific data — such as the Kerala–Bihar–Uttar Pradesh gaps documented in UDISE+ 2025-26 — to prioritise low-performing states; see also Are BIMARU States Still BIMARU? A Structural Analysis of Educational Disparities Using UDISE+ 2024-25.

Strengthen Data Systems: Integrate UDISE+ with household surveys to accurately track OOSC, and ensure the new NEP 5+3+3+4 structure does not create a permanent blind spot for Class-9-10-specific and Class-11-12-specific analysis by publishing disaggregated sub-tables alongside the new combined Secondary figures.

Expand Digital Access: Continue  increasing computer (69.9%) and internet (67.4%) facilities, particularly in rural and low-performing states, to support modern learning.

Close the ECCE Gap: With Foundational-stage GER at just 42.8% in 2025-26, expand recognised pre-primary provision under Samagra Shiksha to strengthen the pipeline’s base before children reach the Preparatory and Middle stages.

State-Level Snapshot, 2025-26: Kerala vs Bihar vs Uttar Pradesh

The UDISE+ 2025-26 state tables reinforce a pattern discussed at length on Education for All in India: Educational outcomes remain sharply divided along regional lines even under the new NEP structure.

Indicator (2025-26)	India	Kerala	Bihar	Uttar Pradesh
GER – Secondary (IX–XII)	71.7	95.7	47.6	61.6
Dropout Rate – Secondary (IX–XII)	7.0	2.9	6.8	6.4
Retention Rate – Secondary (Class 1–12)	51.9	90.1	38.5	44.8

Source: UDISE+ 2025-26, Tables 6.1, 6.11, 6.13.

Kerala’s Secondary GER of 95.7% is already close to the NEP 2030  target, while Bihar, at 47.6%,  would need to roughly double its Secondary GER within four years to reach 100% — illustrating why an all-India average, however useful as a headline number,  obscures the scale of the state-level task ahead.

Concluding Observations

The UDISE+ data from 2020-21 to 2025-26 highlights significant, and in some respects intensifying, challenges in achieving NEP 2020’s goal of 100% GER at the secondary level by 2030. A Secondary (IX–XII) GER of 71.7% in 2025-26, a Secondary NER of 54.8%, a Secondary dropout rate of 7.0% (on the new, broader IX–XII base), and a Class 1–12 retention rate of just 51.9% together indicate that systemic barriers persist even as some indicators — Middle-stage retention, Preparatory→Middle and Middle→Secondary transitions, digital infrastructure — have genuinely improved. The 28.3-percentage-point GER gap against the NEP target, now measured on NEP’s own IX–XII definition of “Secondary,” and the continuing 47.4 million out-of-school children per NSSO 2025 underscore the scale of the challenge.

State-specific data, as repeatedly emphasised in Education for All in India, remains critical for addressing regional disparities such as the Kerala–Bihar gap documented above. Samagra Shiksha’s ₹41,250 crore allocation for 2025-26 offers a robust framework, but success depends on filling teacher vacancies, improving digital infrastructure, engaging communities, and ensuring budget allocations are fully utilised. Without accelerated, evidence-based efforts — and without the data community adapting quickly to the new NEP 5+3+3+4 reporting structure so that progress can still be tracked reliably — India risks missing the 2030 target, necessitating urgent policy reforms to ensure universal secondary education.

Suggested Readings

UDISE+ Data, 2020-21 to 2025-26, Ministry of Education, Government of India. https://udiseplus.gov.in

Analysis of Department of School Education Budget  Allocations, 2025-26, Education for All in India.

School Education in the Union Budget 2026: Education for All in India.

Are BIMARU States Still BIMARU? A Structural Analysis of Educational Disparities Using UDISE+ 2024-25, Education for All in India.

Enrolment Crisis: Why School Enrolment Hit a 7-Year Low in UDISE+ 2024-25, Education for All in India.

School Education in India: Where Do We Stand?, Education for All in India.

NSSO 2025 Survey Data, as cited on Education for All in India.

Education for All in India. https://educationforallinindia.com