Ghaziabad: While UP has pushed for digital education under the National Education Policy (NEP) and Samagra Shiksha programme in recent years, a lack of functional electricity has continued to limit the use of smart classrooms, information and communication technology (ICT) laboratories and other digital teaching infrastructure in thousands of schools in the state.As per the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2025-26 report, 29,751 of the state’s 2,65,278 schools still do not have functional electricity. The study states that while 2,39,164 schools have electricity connections, only 2,35,564 received power supply, indicating that 3,600 schools had connections and infrastructure, but these were unusable.According to education department officials, these 3,600 schools have a sanctioned connection, but power connections to them may have been disconnected over unpaid bills, damaged wiring, faulty transformers or meters, or prolonged technical faults, and have been classified as lacking functional electricity in the report.Several schools in remote villages, officials said, face irregular or non-existent supply despite having approved connections because electricity infrastructure has not reached them.
Deepak Kumar, a senior teacher in Ghaziabad, said unreliable electricity rendered much of the digital infrastructure ineffective. “Without uninterrupted power, smart boards, projectors, computers, internet routers and other digital teaching equipment cannot be used effectively. Online assessments, computer classes, digital attendance systems and teacher training are also affected,” he said. While all govt schools in Ghaziabad have electricity connections over the past six to seven years, many still lack inverter backup, disrupting classroom activities during outages, Kumar said.According to the report, only 9.5% of UP govt schools have functional ICT laboratories, 27% have smart classrooms, and just 2.2% have digital libraries.“Electricity is essential not only for digital classrooms but also for running fans during extreme summers, operating water pumps, lighting classrooms during monsoon days, charging devices, conducting computer classes and ensuring uninterrupted school operations. Without reliable power, investments in digital infrastructure often remain underutilised,” Kumar added.The report also found that 211 govt schools lack drinking water facilities within their premises. Nationally, 95% of schools have electricity connections, while 99.5% have drinking water facilities, according to UDISE+ data.UP has more than 4.3 crore enrolled students and 16.42 lakh teachers in its 2.7 lakh schools, the highest among all states.
