MUMBAI, Oct. 3 -- The latest UDISE+ report has painted a mixed picture for Maharashtra's school education sector. While the state has recorded a rise in student enrolment compared to last year, the condition of rural schools remains worrying, with hundreds facing the threat of survival due to falling student numbers. According to data compiled till September 30, a total of 394 schools across the state reported zero student enrolment for the current academic year. Pune tops the list with 37 such schools, followed by Nagpur with 23, Ratnagiri with 24 and Nanded with 16. In Mumbai, 22 schools in the suburbs and five in the city have no students at all. The crisis deepens when looking at schools with very low enrolment. The report shows that 7,946 schools across the state have only between one and ten students. Ratnagiri has the highest number in this category with 713 schools, followed by Raigad (682), Pune (627), Sindhudurg (569), and Kolhapur (317). Even in Mumbai suburban, 360 schools have fewer than ten students. A larger group of schools, about 52,573, have between 11 and 100 students each. These include over 3,000 schools in Ahmednagar, nearly 3,000 in Pune and more than 2,600 in Nashik. But despite the shrinking enrolment in rural areas, the overall picture at the state level remains positive. By the end of September, the total number of students registered in Classes 1 to 12 was 2,11,86,943. This is an increase of 7,270 students compared to the same time last year, when the figure stood at 2,11,79,673. Officials expect the number to rise further once pending records, which are in hundreds of thousands, are completed. The UDISE+ system developed by the central government was introduced to track detailed information about schools, teachers, students and infrastructure. This year, all 1,08,396 schools in the state were required to upload data by September 30. Sachindra Pratap Singh, commissioner of school education, said that instructions had been given to the local authorities to physically verify schools that showed zero enrolment. "We have asked officials to check whether these schools had shut down earlier but continue to exist in UDISE records," he said. Speaking about schools with an enrolment of between one and ten students, Singh added, "The SCERT is currently studying the learning outcomes of these schools. The future course of action will be decided based on the findings of this review." Education activist Heramb Kulkarni told HT that the state government needed to introduce a strict policy to regulate the number of schools in Maharashtra. He pointed out that there are around 28,585 gram panchayats or local bodies in the state but the total number of schools has crossed 100,000. "This means that on an average, every village has more than five schools," he said. "The government should review this situation as per Right To Education rules and wherever necessary, take steps to merge or shut down schools. Such a move will help in the holistic development of students and also save public money. For this, a special policy must be introduced."...