BJP govt shut 26,000 UP schools to deny education to PDA children: Akhilesh Yadav

Published 2 August 2026 · local

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged that the Uttar Pradesh government has shut more than 26,000 government primary schools since coming to power

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged that the Uttar Pradesh government has shut more than 26,000 government primary schools since coming to power in 2017, and claimed that the move was aimed at denying education to children from PDA communities, which he described as Backwards, Dalits and Minorities. Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Lucknow, Yadav said the Samajwadi Party would raise the issue during the Monsoon Session of the Assembly, which begins on Monday. He also said party MLAs would target the government on education, paper leaks, law and order, and alleged corruption. Read Full Story Yadav said official data showed that Uttar Pradesh had 1,13,938 government primary schools until March 2017, when the BJP came to power, and claimed that more than 26,000 of them have been closed since then.

He said the highest number of closures was in Lakhimpur Kheri, where 758 schools were shut, followed by Sitapur with 650 and Prayagraj with 638. In Gorakhpur, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's home district, around 500 primary schools were closed, he said. Saying that most students in government primary schools belong to Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes, Yadav alleged that the BJP did not want children from PDA communities to get education. He said enrolment in these schools had fallen from 1.17 crore students in 2017 to around 89 lakh in 2026, and added that of these 89 lakh students, about 25 lakh belong to OBC, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories.

He also said the number of teachers in these schools had come down from around 4 lakh in 2017 to 3.40 lakh at present, while nearly 81,000 teaching posts remained vacant. Yadav alleged that the government was reducing teaching posts because it did not want to provide permanent government jobs, as regular recruitment would require budget allocations and implementation of reservation policies. Yadav said the closure of government primary schools had hurt girls' education, with the number of girls studying in these schools falling from 61.57 lakh in March 2017 to around 45 lakh now. He also claimed that thousands of government schools still lacked basic infrastructure, saying around 7,000 schools had no electricity, about 2,300 had no toilets for girls, 576 had no drinking water facilities and nearly 23,000 had no provision for computer education.

Yadav said the Samajwadi Party would press the government in the Assembly over school closures, falling enrolment, teacher vacancies and poor facilities in primary schools. Ends