Behind closed doors: Odisha school closures fuel dropouts and educational challenges for tribal children

On a bright sunny day on October 25, 2025, 45-year-old Laxman Kalaka, a mason, is busy laying bricks for a community building on the outskirts of Karapadi, a remote village in Odisha’s southern district of Rayagada. Around the same time, his two sons and a daughter, all three under 13, wander aimlessly along the dusty village road — sometimes playing, sometimes disappearing into the nearby forest for fun.

Of the three, one — aged 13 — dropped out of Class IV from a residential school run by the ST and SC Development Department after his hostel mates mocked him for bedwetting. The daughter, aged six, refuses to walk the 1.5 km alone to the next village to start school.

“Either I send my daughter to a hostel and let her study on her own, or she remains illiterate. I am worried that my youngest son could face a similar fate. Had our village school not been shut down, my kids would have studied while staying with us,” says Mr. Kalaka, out of frustration.

The Government Primary School at Karapadi, under Bissamcuttack block, was closed in 2017–18 under the State’s rule mandating the closure of schools with fewer than 20 students. The once-busy classroom is now an election booth — and doubles up as a storage shed for villagers.

Drive another two kilometres from Karapadi, and the three-room Kumbia New Primary School stands locked. It opens only during the harvest season, when villagers store their paddy inside. The village, too, is full of children who should have been in school.

Patapadar Upper Primary School, two kilometres further, narrowly escaped closure. With 45 students distributed across eight classes and only four teachers, it continues to function. Madhuaguda New Primary School was not as lucky; it was shut down in 2016–17.

Across a close to 60 sq km area of Sahada Gram Panchayat under Bissamcuttack block, six schools have been shut down since 2016–17. In Bissamcuttack block alone, 40 schools have been locked up; district-wide, nearly 400 have been closed during the same period. Statewide, the closures number in the thousands.

School rationalisation

As per government statistics, the number of schools closed and merged with neighbourhood schools would be around 10,000 since 2013. Furnishing a reply in the State Assembly, School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond in March 2025 said 5632 schools were closed and merged in the last five years. Rayagada had 121 in them.

The Odisha government calls it school rationalisation and reorganisation. But for people like Laxman Kalaka of Karapadi, it means something more stark— the loss of a child’s simplest right: the chance to study close to home.

School closures have had a more telling impact in tribal-dominated interior pockets, where educational entrepreneurs see little profit in setting up private schools. For poor parents in remote areas, government institutions remain the only option to initiate their children’s education.

Away from home at five?

In regions like Bissamcuttack, the gateway to schooling is often through residential institutions run by the SC and ST Development Department. These schools offer free uniforms, textbooks, food, and accommodation — easing parents’ financial burden and ensuring access to basic education.

“The admission to a hostel comes with its own risks. I have a daughter aged five and a son who is three. I am trying to get my daughter admitted to a hostel. Though I know five years is too young to be away from home, we are helpless,” says Janes Urlaka, a young mother from Hikiriguda village, where the primary school was closed a few years ago. Her daughter now learns to wash her own clothes in preparation for hostel life.

Odisha has 1,737 residential schools and 5,500 hostels serving around 4.5 lakh Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste students, including three lakh girls, across primary to senior secondary levels.

Overburdened teachers

In Bissamcuttack, frequent teacher absenteeism and poor infrastructure have discouraged families from sending their children to local schools. “As soon as children near the age of five, parents start looking for government residential schools, even if it means sending their kids outside the district,” says Nakula Mundik of Kumbhia village. “A school within the village would have made a big difference — parents would not feel so desperate.”

However, most residential schools are overcrowded. The Government Residential School at Padabai, catering to villages such as Kumbhia, Hikiriguda, Karapadi and Madhuaguda — where local schools have been shut — has just three teachers, including the headmaster, and one matron for 309 students, of whom 280 are tiny boarders. Teachers are overburdened with hostel management, leaving little time for academic instruction.

Increase in drop-outs

In Sahada panchayat of Bissamcuttack block, where most parents are daily wage earners, the burden of care is simply transferred to the residential schools. Many students lose motivation midway through their studies.

“Had there been a school in the village, a teacher could have looked after the students when parents were away for work. Once a school shuts down, parents rarely manage to send their children regularly to a distant school,” says Anil Pradhan, a Right to Education activist.

The fallout is evident in the dropout numbers. What was once estimated casually has now become stark. Between 2021 and 2022, annual dropouts were in single or double digits. But this year, Bissamcuttack alone reported 1,319 dropouts, with only 51 dropouts returning to school. In Rayagada district, the number soared to 18,251 in 2025–26, compared to fewer than 100 over the previous four academic sessions.

Mr. Pradhan argues that school closures in Scheduled Areas — where most children are still first-generation learners — are deeply misplaced. “The government is relying on enrolment data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) to make closure decisions. It should instead consult communities, parents, and local representatives before taking such steps,” he says.