PRAYAGRAJ, July 23 -- More than half of Uttar Pradesh's school-going children study in private institutions despite the state spending over Rs.1,000 crore annually on school education, according to the latest Project Approval Board (PAB) report of the Union Ministry of Education's Department of School Education and Literacy. Based on the minutes of a meeting between senior state education department officials and the PAB held on May 14, the report-approved on June 29 and released recently-includes detailed data on private schools in Uttar Pradesh for the first time. A copy of the report, accessed by HT, shows that Uttar Pradesh had 2,62,358 schools during the 2024-25 academic session, of which 39.8% were privately managed. Despite accounting for less than 40% of all schools, private institutions enrolled 51.7% of students from Classes 1 to 12. In contrast, nearly 1.37 lakh government and government-aided schools, which constituted 52.11% of the state's total schools, accounted for just 39.1% of overall student enrolment, the report said. The findings are significant as students in government schools up to class 8 get free textbooks, uniforms, school bags, shoes, socks and mid-day meals. The trend is particularly noteworthy given that nearly 70% of Uttar Pradesh's population lives in rural areas, where government schools have traditionally been the main source of education. Taking note of the enrolment imbalance, the PAB has asked the state education department to assess the effectiveness of support being provided to government schools. It recommended strengthening these schools through improved infrastructure and better quality classroom teaching to boost student enrolment and retention, a senior official in the state secondary education department said. The report also points to mixed trends in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER). At the foundational stage (pre-primary to Class 3), GER dipped marginally from 33.9 in 2023-24 to 33.6 in 2024-25. However, enrolment improved at higher levels, with GER increasing from 86.7 to 90.6 at the preparatory stage (Classes 3-5), from 78.8 to 83.9 at the middle stage (Classes 6-8), and from 58.5 to 60.9 at the secondary and higher secondary stages (Classes 9-12). The PAB has recommended targeted interventions to improve enrolment across all educational stages, particularly at the foundational and secondary levels. It also advised the state to analyse class-wise enrolment trends and implement corrective measures to address gaps in student participation....