The squat one-storey building has recently received a fresh coat of paint and looks respectable from a distance. But this government-run primary school for girls in Faridabad, a district on the outskirts of the Indian capital Delhi, suffers from a host of problems. The road outside the school in Khedi Kalan village is dotted with shallow potholes filled with filthy water.
Inside, local social worker Satpal Narwat points out the plaster falling from the ceiling. "It looks new from the outside, but it's crumbling from inside. Four of its eight toilets are unusable and full of trash, while four of the nine classrooms have also been abandoned because they are too unsafe for children," he says, adding that in the rains, "the classrooms get flooded and children have no place to sit".
This is not an isolated case. Many schools, especially in rural India, are starved of funding and in disrepair. India spends only 4.1% of its GDP on education.
While this meets Unesco's lower minimum threshold of 4%, several countries - including France, Germany, Australia, Brazil and the US - spend more than 5% of their GDP on education. Countries like Belgium and Sweden spend even more. Experts - and the Indian government's own National Education Policy (NEP) - have recommended 6% as the ideal mark for India.
According to official data, 94,000 government schools have closed here between 2014-15 and 2024-25. A report, external by government think-tank Niti Aayog says some were merged as part of efforts to streamline the system, but acknowledges that enrolment has fallen as demand for private schools has risen. The poor state of government schools is the focus of a new campaign by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).
The online satirical movement made global headlines for its weeks-long protest in Delhi, which culminated in the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan last month. The protests had erupted in May after NEET, India's biggest medical entrance exam, was cancelled following a question paper leak, forcing nearly two million students to retake the test. More than 20 students died by suicide, with their families blaming the scandal.
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