Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh school education department has reduced the number of primary and middle schools to be merged with the Kamla Nehru Sandipani Girls School in the city from 13 to 8. The government decision to merge eight schools in the Kamla Nehur –which is exclusively for girls – has left the boys seeking new campuses.
Parents have been given the option to enroll their boys in any government schools or in even Sandipani School at Barkhedi, which is a co-educational school. In all, eight Sandipani Schools have been proposed for the city.
As part of the decision to merge primary and middle schools within a two-km radius of Sandipani Schools with the latter, in Bhopal 13 schools were proposed to be merged with Kamla Nehru.
The total strength of these schools was 1,133. Had all these schools been merged with Kamla Nehru School, its strength would have gone up from the current 1,410 to 2,543 - higher than its capacity of 2,100.
Hence, it has now been decided to merge only eight schools with a total enrollment of 313. They include primary schools at Prempura, Roshanpura, Harshvardhan Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar and Patrakar Bhavan and MACT and Gandhi Bal Mandir middle schools. However, of the 313 students enrolled in these schools, 166 are boys, who can’t be admitted to a girls’ school.
Bhopal District Education Officer Narendra Kumar Ahirwar said that the parents of the boy students would be given the option of admitting their wards to any other government school of their choice around their homes.
“If the parents agree, we will get them admitted to the Sandipani School at Barkhedi, which is a bit far away. But that won’t make any difference as all Sandipani Schools provide transport to the students,’ he said, adding that the process of admission of the 147 girl students in Kamla Nehru will be completed within a week, he said.
All over the state, a total of 260 schools, having around 25,000 students, are proposed to be merged with 27 Sandipani Schools, which have their own new building.
The idea is to move students out from schools with dilapidated buildings. The teachers of the merged schools will also be transferred to the Sandipani Schools concerned.
