India has largely succeeded in bringing children into classrooms, but ensuring meaningful learning remains an unresolved challenge. The Economic Survey 2025–26 reports near-universal enrolment at the elementary level, improving retention rates and gradual gains in secondary education enrolment, marking a significant policy achievement.
However, the Survey cautions that learning outcomes have not improved at the same pace. Foundational literacy and numeracy levels remain uneven across states, income groups and school types. Post-pandemic learning losses continue to affect younger students, particularly those from economically weaker households who lacked access to digital tools during school closures.
Teacher availability and classroom quality remain key bottlenecks. The Survey highlights persistent teacher shortages in certain regions, imbalanced pupil-teacher ratios and uneven deployment, all of which affect learning outcomes. While digital education played a stabilising role during the pandemic, unequal access widened learning gaps rather than closing them.
The Economic Survey frames this contrast between access and outcomes as the next phase of reform. With enrolment gains stabilising, the focus now needs to shift from getting children into school to ensuring that time spent in classrooms translates into consistent learning and long-term educational outcomes.