Education Lower is better

Pupil-teacher ratio (Primary, Grades 1-5)

Students per teacher at the PRIMARY level (Grades 1-5) only, not the all-levels school aggregate. Lower is generally considered better; the RTE Act prescribes a maximum of 30:1. UDISE+ reports PTR separately per level (primary / upper-primary / secondary / higher-secondary); this indicator tracks the primary-level figure.

Tamil Nadu's ptr (primary) is 20.00 :1 (2024-25), per Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education.

Tamil Nadu, latest

20.00

2024-25

Last verified 2026-05-15

Change

+5.3%

2022-23 → 2024-25

Rank vs compared states

#1 of 5

TN vs MH, KA, GJ, UP · lower is better

Tamil Nadu's PTR (Primary) is 20.00 (2024-25), up +5.3% since 2022-23. It ranks #1 of 5 compared states (lower is better).

Source Official Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education Coverage 2022-23 – 2024-25 Sources & methodology ↓

About this indicator

This is the average number of students per teacher in primary schools, a basic proxy for staffing adequacy against the RTE norm of 30 to 1. A lower ratio suggests more individual attention is possible, but the state average can hide sharp differences between crowded and thinly staffed schools. It also counts teachers on paper, so it does not capture absenteeism, subject mismatch, or single-teacher schools where the headline ratio looks fine but coverage is not.

PTR (Primary) · 2022-23 – 2024-25

Tamil Nadu's PTR (Primary) rose from 19.00 (2022-23) to 20.00 (2024-25).

Source: Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education

Compare with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh

1 MH Maharashtra 24.00 2024-25
2 GJ Gujarat 24.00 2024-25
3 KA Karnataka 21.00 2024-25
4 TN Tamil Nadu 20.00 2024-25
5 UP Uttar Pradesh 20.00 2024-25

Tamil Nadu highlighted. Each row shows that state's value and the year it is from. Compare like years with care.

Where this data comes from

The provenance of every value above and how to cite it.

Source provenance

All observations come from a single source.

FY23 → FY25

Primary ↗

Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education

UDISE+ Booklets (Existing Structure), Ministry of Education

15 observations across 5 states · Tier 2

Click any segment to open the source publication and verify the values yourself.

Methodology & notes

Primary-level (Grades 1-5) pupil-teacher ratio from UDISE+ Booklet Table 4.12 (Existing Structure), parsed from the official PDF. Series starts 2022-23 (UDISE+ student-wise database era).