4,133 Schools Have No Students but 19,502 Teachers Listed; 6,769 Schools Run With Just One Teacher in Bengal

West Bengal’s school education system has shown a major imbalance, with thousands of schools having no students while thousands of others are struggling with a shortage of teachers. The latest data from the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) has brought the situation to light.
According to the report, 4,133 schools in West Bengal currently have no students enrolled. However, the records show that around 19,502 teachers are working in these schools. The figures include both government and private schools and have raised questions about why so many teachers are listed at schools where there are no students.
State School Education Minister Dipak Barman said that the figures may partly be the result of problems in the data uploaded by private schools. According to him, some private schools uploaded details of their teachers but did not properly update the number of students. As a result, the portal showed zero students in those schools.
At the same time, the state faces the opposite problem in 6,769 schools, where there is only one teacher for the entire school. More than 2.29 lakh students are studying in these schools. A single teacher has to manage teaching as well as other school-related responsibilities, making it difficult to provide proper education to all students.
The minister blamed the teacher shortage on alleged irregularities and lack of recruitment over the past 15 years. He said the government is now trying to correct the system and expects to address the problem by the end of this year.
The overall figures also show a wide gap in student numbers across schools. West Bengal has around 93,147 schools. About 8% of these schools have fewer than 10 students, while around 8.5% have more than 500 students.
The government has said it has started taking steps to reduce this imbalance. Teachers from schools where there are more teachers than required are being transferred to schools facing a shortage.
The UDISE+ data therefore highlights two very different problems in West Bengal — some schools have teachers but no students, while others have large numbers of students but too few teachers. The government now faces the challenge of making the distribution of teachers and students more balanced across the state.