The Students’ Exodus From These Schools May Be Attributed To The Rise In People’s Living Standards And Their Aspirations, Says Official Data
NEW DELHI : The Human Resources Development Ministry is confused over a drop in the total number of students taking admission in the government and aided private schools since the Right to Education (RTE) Act was enforced in April 2010.
It is worried since the sole purpose of the RTE Act was to provide free education to ensure 100 per cent children are enrolled but it is having wrong effect as the enrollment has dropped instead of going up.
Official data of enrollment in the country’s 13 lakh government and aided primary schools shows that the number of students studying in these schools fell from 13.34 crore in 2010 to 13.24 crore in 2013-14, a drop of 10 lakhs.
The students’ exodus from these schools instead of more enrolment is attributed to the rise in people’s living standards and their aspirations. These schools offer education only in the local language that may be Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, etc., while the parents are shifting their wards to the private schools that offer education in the English medium, the ministry learnt from queries sent out to all state governments.
A report by NGO Pratham in January had also noted preference to private schools fast picking up in many states, with Kerala sending as much as 70 per cent of its children to private schools despite a good public infrastructure. It noted that a study done in 2013 showed that just 18.19 per cent of children in government schools could do basic subtraction compared with 44.6 per cent in private schools, a reason why parents are shifting their wards to private schools.
The ministry sources said the RTE Act’s requirement of education in the local language may be relaxed to let the government and aided private schools get grants even for classes in the English medium.
In many states, the falling number of students in the government and aided schools has triggered a new phenomena of merger of the low-enrollment schools to cut costs.
Karnataka and Maharashtra have already merged about 20,000 primary schools in the past one year and the same is feared to happen in the coming days with some 17,000 primary schools in Rajasthan.
Many schools have also closed evening shifts and absorbed them within the day classes. If there are more than one schools within the distance of one or two km, they have been merged in defiance of the RTE Act’s requirement that every habitation must have a primary school within one km.
The logic given for mergers is that teachers can be effectively utilised in schools that are understaffed, while buildings of the schools that are shut can be used for other activities like skill training, adult education and information kiosks.
