70% urban students in private schools, 27% take coaching: Mospi survey

About 95% of students reported family members as the primary contributors towards education-related expenses, while only 1.2% students reported government scholarships as primary contributors

Nearly 70 per cent of students in urban India are enrolled in private schools, while about one in four students nationwide rely on private coaching, according to a national survey of school education conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

 

The Comprehensive Modular Survey: Education, 2025, carried out between April and June 2025 under the 80th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS), covered 52,085 households and more than 2.2 lakh individuals across 2,384 rural areas and 1,982 urban blocks. It provides national-level estimates on school education and household expenditure.

 

Urban preference for private education 

The findings show a clear divide between rural and urban enrolment. In rural areas, two-thirds of students (66 per cent) were enrolled in government schools, while 33.9 per cent studied in private or other institutions. In urban areas, only 30.1 per cent of students attended government schools, while nearly 70 per cent studied in private aided or unaided recognised institutions. Private unaided schools alone accounted for 51.4 per cent of urban enrolments.

 

 

Dependence on private coaching 

About 30.7 per cent of students in urban areas reported taking private coaching during the current academic year, compared with 25.5 per cent in rural areas.

 

Average expenditure on coaching was estimated at ₹3,988 per student in urban India, against ₹1,793 in rural India. At the higher secondary level, urban households spent nearly ₹9,950 per student on coaching, while rural households spent ₹4,548. The survey noted that boys spent slightly more than girls on coaching, at ₹2,572 compared with ₹2,227.

 

Education costs higher in urban areas 

The average annual expenditure per student in urban areas was estimated at ₹23,470 across all types of schools, compared with ₹8,382 in rural areas. In government schools, spending averaged ₹4,128 per student in urban areas and ₹2,639 in rural areas. In non-government schools, it was substantially higher at ₹31,782 in urban areas and ₹19,554 in rural areas.

 

Households bear bulk of education costs 

Households continue to be the primary source of educational funding, with about 95 per cent of students reporting family members as the main contributors towards school-related expenses. Only 1.2 per cent of students cited government scholarships as their primary source of funding.

 

Survey methodology changes 

MoSPI cautioned that the latest survey findings cannot be directly compared with the previous survey conducted between July 2017 and June 2018. The earlier survey did not classify aanganwadi centres under pre-primary education and included private coaching expenses within school education. The 2025 survey classifies anganwadis within pre-primary and separates spending on school education and coaching under different heads.