Curtains to fall on Delhi’s evening schools? Who are they for and why the govt is phasing them out

And on the top floor, nearly a 1,000 primary children attend classes in the morning, shifted from a school across the road, as the building was declared unsafe.

Until 2023, it was a single-shift co-ed school but overcrowding forced its conversion into a double-shift system.

At another government school in East Delhi, with over 50 classrooms, a similar routine unfolds like clockwork. Pre-primary and primary girls leave first by early afternoon, followed by older students. Soon, the classrooms are cleaned and the staff rotated. Then, the boys come in.

Across several Delhi government schools, this pattern repeats itself every day.

As many as 284 of 1,086 schools in the city operate in double shifts: girls attend the morning shift from 7 am to 12.30 pm while boys come for the evening shift from 1 pm to 6.30 pm — a system that came into place owing to lack of space to house a burgeoning student population. There are around 18 lakh students in government schools. And there are 799 government school buildings under the Directorate of Education (DoE). This two-shift system, however, could soon come to an end.

As many as 284 of 1,086 schools in the city operate in double shifts: girls attend the morning shift from 7 am to 12.30 pm while boys come for the evening shift from 1 pm to 6.30 pm. (Express Photo by Abhinav Saha)

While plans to phase out double-shift schools have been afoot since 2011, with the DoE saying it was not in the best interests of children, it gained momentum in the recently concluded Winter Session of the Delhi Assembly, when the government said it plans to convert all evening-shift schools into single morning-shift schools.

Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood told The Indian Express, “At present, 70 blocks of land have been identified, of which 50 are free from all encumbrances. Very soon, we will start construction on these sites. Wherever possible, new single, morning schools will be set up. But in high-density areas, there are limitations of land availability.” He added that the previous AAP government made no serious efforts to acquire land and build schools for this purpose.

A DoE official told The Indian Express, “We have over 18 lakh students in government schools. The biggest issue is that in high-enrolment areas there is no land, but in low-enrolment rural areas like Narela and Prahladpur, there is ample land. Vertical expansion is possible, but new schools take time, which is why work has been slow.”

“On average, about five schools have been converted into single-shift schools every year in the past decade. This is done by merging two double-shift schools and making them two single-shift schools. In some cases, new buildings have also come up,” the official adds.

The Indian Express spent a day at four double-shift schools in Northwest and East Delhi to understand how the change could affect its key stakeholders — students — and spoke to teachers and experts on if the move would be beneficial.

Morning vs afternoon

At 3 pm, the corridors of the double-shift Northwest Delhi school fill up. Boys move towards the playground for their meal — halwa and chana.

Among them is Ayush (13), a Class IX student. He lives five minutes away. His father is a mechanic and his mother teaches at home. Ayush wakes at 6.30 am, drops his two sisters to school, attends tuition, then heads to school in the afternoon. “I am used to it now,” he says.

For Harsh (16), who runs an egg stall after school, the timings suit him. His day ends at 1 am and begins at 8.30 am. “I prefer the evening shift. My work ends late at night, so in the morning I cannot open my eyes,” he says. His father is a driver and Harsh is the youngest of five siblings.

At the upper-primary level (Classes VI to VIII), 716 students are taught by 22 teachers (about 33:1), marginally within norms. (Express Photo by Abhinav Saha)

When told the government wants all schools to move to mornings, he says, “Evening is better. I can go to my stall and wake up late. I study three hours in the morning before school.”

Abhishek (14) says morning school has an advantage. “I do not want to stay in school till evening. I get tired and cannot concentrate,” he says. His father had died of a heart attack when he was in Class 7. His mother sews bags in a nearby factory.

All three students earlier used to be in the morning shift.

At the East Delhi school, Akhilesh (16), says the shift has altered daily life. Until last year, he returned home by mid-afternoon. That changed when he entered Class 11.

After completing Class 10 at a Sarvodaya school, which only goes up to the secondary level, he applied to a nearby government school.
However, his admission was later transferred to another government school that operates on an afternoon shift. “The whole day goes in school, then coaching. There’s no time to play or to learn anything new like guitar lessons or sports,” he says.

“You feel tired all the time,” Prince, Akhilesh’s classmate, says. “By the last period, it’s very hard to focus.”

Cost of evening shifts

The Northwest Delhi double-shift school has a large campus. A notice board in the principal’s office lists the infrastructure: Built-up area: 1,646 sq m, Playground: 1,900 sq m, Garden: 840 sq m, Toilets: 76, Washrooms: 57, Library/Lab rooms: 19.

But it’s not enough for its total student population of over 3,000. The morning shift has around 1,800 girls and the evening shift has about 1,200 boys.

The principal says there are issues with attendance in the evening shift. “Morning attendance stays between 75 and 80%. In the evening shift, it falls to around 70%… Many of these boys work part-time, which is why they miss school,” he says.

An analysis of shift-wise Class XII pass percentages between 2016 and 2024 further highlights disparities in academic performance. (Express Photo by Abhinav Saha)

Just then, a teacher brings in a Class 11 boy who has missed all his exams to his office. He stands near the door, eyes on the floor. Son, you shouldn’t do drugs,” the principal tells him softly. “You should study.” After the student leaves, the principal says: “This is what mostly happens in evening schools: drugs, violence, irregularity. Such problems would not occur in a single-shift co-ed school. Boys are more disciplined when they study with girls.”

A 58-year-old commerce teacher also points to the attendance gap. “You’ll mostly find Humanities students taking up jobs,” he says. “In my class, only 7-10 students work part-time — repairing punctures, fixing phones, working for ride-hailing apps, selling vegetables, catering at weddings.”

“But in Science sections, you will not find anyone working,” he adds.

The senior secondary division has two Science sections, one Commerce and one Humanities. In the morning shift, there are 80 teachers — 5 to 10% are men. Of the 66 teachers in the evening shift, only around 10 are women.

At the East Delhi double-shift school, in the morning shift, over 1,070 of 2,033 girls belong to minority communities; 22 are from economically weaker households and 22 are repeaters. In the evening shift, 876 of 1,787 boys belong to minority communities, with 177 repeaters and 34 BPL students.

The same attendance issue crops up here too.

As per attendance records, in the evening shift, 18-25 students attend classes against enrolments of 40-50, pushing attendance down to 40-60%. Primary classes fared better, averaging 25-30 students in sections of about 40. Attendance declined steadily in higher classes.

In contrast, at a single-shift boys school in Northwest Delhi, with 2,881 students enrolled, 20-25 students were present in classes of 30-35. “Parents hesitate to send boys in the afternoon,” a teacher says. “Families are more comfortable sending daughters in the morning.”

In the morning shift, over 1,070 of 2,033 girls belong to minority communities; 22 are from economically weaker households and 22 are repeaters. (Express Photo by Abhinav Saha)

Teacher deployment shows another imbalance. In the girls’ morning shift at the East Delhi school, the pre-primary section has around 110 children taught by four teachers (28:1), but in Classes I to V, 392 students are handled by nine teachers, pushing the ratio to nearly 44:1, well above the prescribed norm of 30:1.

At the upper-primary level (Classes VI to VIII), 716 students are taught by 22 teachers (about 33:1), marginally within norms. The boys’ evening shift, by contrast, records more even staffing, with 383 primary students taught by 12 teachers and 649 upper primary students by 21 teachers — both working out to roughly 32:1. Secondary and higher secondary sections have about 18 students per teacher.

Teachers, however, said these relatively better ratios in the evening shift have not translated into stronger learning outcomes, with “fatigue, lower attentiveness” and disrupted routines continuing to affect classroom engagement.

An analysis of shift-wise Class XII pass percentages between 2016 and 2024 further highlights disparities in academic performance. In 2024, the pass percentage for the morning shift was 96.96; it was 95.33 for the evening shift (see box).

This is also reflected in the Quality Index (QI), which measures the quality of marks rather than pass percentages. In 2024, looking at the same Class XII results, the QI was 312.63 for morning shifts as compared to 296.20 for evening shifts.

Expert speak

According to educators, a schooling system that relies heavily on afternoon shifts risks producing weaker learning outcomes, which can translate into lower skills and employability over time.

Ameeta Mulla Wattal, chairperson of DLF Schools, cautioned that a sudden withdrawal of evening shifts without alternatives could push a section of working children out of the system altogether. “… evening shifts do help prevent children from dropping out altogether. Many government-aided schools run afternoon shifts, and many children would otherwise be completely out of school.”

She adds that while evening shifts prevent ‘out of school children’, they act as a stop-gap. “… there is a strange sense of low self-esteem. Children begin to feel they are studying in what is left over after the morning shift… It affects confidence, motivation and aspirations,” she says, calling for bridge courses and targeted support.

A lecturer at a boys’ evening-shift senior secondary school says, “Learning between 1 pm and 6 pm comes with fatigue, dehydration, heat stress and post-lunch drowsiness, increasing cognitive load and affecting attention, memory and reasoning.”

A senior social science teacher at a general-shift government school, who taught for 13 years in girls’ morning-shift schools, says co-ed classrooms show greater academic momentum, with boys more alert and competitive. (Express Photo by Abhinav Saha)

A senior social science teacher at a general-shift government school, who taught for 13 years in girls’ morning-shift schools, says co-ed classrooms show greater academic momentum, with boys more alert and competitive.

Latika Gupta, Assistant Professor at the Department of Education, University of Delhi, says double shifts reshape what classrooms mean.
“The classroom becomes a rented space. Everything is temporary,” she says.

She also says the division produces gendered losses. “Girls lose playgrounds. Boys accumulate aggression. Development shrinks. Private schools do not run double shifts. This is the story of poverty.”

If the government is serious about its target, she adds, it must rethink school construction. “If there are more children, what kind of buildings should we design? Nobody has thought seriously.”

For some parents, the evening shift has brought relief and new pressures.

Om Prakash Singhal cycles across East Delhi supplying goods to shops and supports a family of six. His younger son studies in Class 7 at a government school in Mayur Vihar Phase I — about 8 km away from their home. “Travelling very early is difficult, especially in winter. The evening shift is better,” he says.

But the shift also reshapes daily responsibilities. He says his wife, Preeti, drops and picks their son every day. “The surroundings are not very suitable for children to be on their own… They reach home at 7.30 pm…”

His son has also adjusted to the schedule. “He doesn’t wake up early, it’s become his routine now.”