A leaking roof, a broken toilet or a poorly maintained classroom are among the visible problems found in schools. But the larger question is whether Goa’s schools are preparing children to think critically and compete in a changing world and what its education system is achieving in that regard. The debate, therefore, extends beyond individual school buildings to examine what has actually changed in Goa’s education system.
In 2010, Goa had 1,068 government schools and 713 aided/private schools, out of 1,781 schools. By 2025, government schools had fallen to 813, while aided/private schools had risen to 901, with the total at 1,714. This represents a 23.9 per cent decline in government schools and a 26.4 per cent rise in aided/private schools. The more important story, however, is what happened between those two points.
Goa’s school system has changed significantly over the past 25 years. Around 2012, Goa introduced remedial teaching, monitoring and inspections to address low-performing government high schools. From 2014–15, NSQF was introduced alongside infrastructure upgrades and other interventions. Government-school SSC performance subsequently improved substantially: the number of government high schools recording 100 per cent results rose from 17 in 2016 to 49 out of 63, or 77.8 per cent in 2023.
Goa has also invested substantially in infrastructure and newer forms of learning. According to the Economic Survey 2024–25, GSIDC had upgraded 688 schools in Goa, while the number of government primary schools with a single teacher declined from 373 in 2019–20 to 250 in 2024–25. Under CM-CARES, coding and robotics are taught to more than 65,000 students across more than 440 government and aided schools. The programme received a SKOCH Gold Award in 2025, while its project unit was recognised by ISRO as a Registered Space Tutor.
Goa also has a unique aided-school ecosystem, with nearly 40 per cent of its schools being government-aided and many run by respected religious and community institutions.
There is therefore considerable evidence of progress. But this raises the next question: is passing an examination the same as learning?
A 100 per cent SSC result does not, by itself, indicate whether every child can think critically, reason independently or solve problems. The National Achievement Survey provides a different lens by measuring competencies rather than simply examination results. Goa performs strongly in some areas, including English, while mathematics at higher levels presents a different picture. The next phase of education reform consequently brings greater attention to what happens inside the classroom: teaching quality, teacher training, pedagogy, foundational learning, mathematics, critical thinking and the identification and resolution of learning gaps.
There is another factor making this transition increasingly significant: Goa is producing fewer children. The crude birth rate fell from around 13 per 1,000 in 2018 to 10.73 in 2023. Live births declined from more than 20,000 in 2018 to 17,240 in 2023, after reaching around 15,400 in 2021. Goa’s fertility rate of 1.3 is substantially below the replacement level of 2.1, among the lowest of any Indian state and even the European Union.
The consequences are already visible in the school system. Enrolment in Classes 1 to 10 peaked at around 2.45 lakh in 2013–14 and has fallen to around 2.32 lakh. Primary enrolment has fallen from roughly one lakh to about 91,000.
Which brings us to the obvious question: Does Goa need fewer schools?
The answer depends on which schools are being considered, where they are located and how many children they serve. A small school in a remote community may continue to serve an important local function even with low enrolment. At the same time, where one school serves 200 children and another nearby serves 20, the difference raises questions about the utilisation of public infrastructure. Consolidation or merger could, in some cases, allow an underused school building to serve other community purposes, such as a childcare centre, gym or community clinic.
Parents’ choices also matter. Families increasingly choose reputed private English-medium schools for perceived teaching quality, English proficiency, peer groups and future opportunities. This does not necessarily indicate that government schools are universally poor performers. Rather, the shift in parental preference provides another measure of how families perceive the differences between the two systems and what they value in their children’s education.
This is where the ‘School Theek Karo’ campaign can make a useful contribution. CJP’s emphasis on visiting schools and examining what is actually happening on the ground provides one perspective. The government’s emphasis on the substantial investment and interventions already undertaken provides another. Both can coexist. A school may have an old building and excellent teachers; a renovated school may still produce weak learning outcomes.
The infrastructure audit is therefore a useful starting point, but it does not by itself capture the full picture of education reform. The next phase of the debate increasingly concerns teacher recruitment, teacher training and pedagogy, learning outcomes, and the design of a school network around the children Goa is likely to have in the future rather than the children it had twenty years ago.
Education is a system, and systems can be examined through numbers: how many children Goa will have in 2035 and 2050, where they will live, how many schools are required, which schools produce strong learning outcomes, and which buildings are being fully utilised or could serve other purposes. That is what evidence-based democracy looks like: measure what worked, identify what did not, examine where resources are being used, and align future investment with the children Goa will have. Fix the schools, but let the data decide what needs fixing.
(Sameeuddin Sheikh is a public policy professional with experience in government programmes and
infrastructure projects in Goa.)
