A fourth of Uttar Pradesh’s (UP’s) 200 million people are aged between five and 14 years–India’s largest child population–but the state has the fewest teachers per student, the poorest transition rate from primary to upper primary school and amongst the lowest learning outcomes in the country.

As Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populated state, goes to polls, we look at the state of education, a subject that should be on top of the agenda for any party coming to power. As the first part of this series observed, literacy rates and learning ...