Even as Gujarat schools reopened for senior classes on Monday, the State stared at a shortage of classrooms for some 80,000 ‘extra’ students in standard 11 given that all were mass-promoted to the next class in view of the Covid-19 crisis.
The shortage, however, was not felt on the first day and won’t be experienced for some more time since the Gujarat Government has allowed only 50% attendance in keeping with the Covid-19 social distancing protocol.
Besides this, heavy rains ensured even less than 50% attendance on day 1, coupled with fears among parents of a possible third wave of the dreaded virus with reports suggesting that it might impact children more than the adults.
However, when things normalise, sources in the State Education Department say there is likely to be a shortfall of 3,000 classrooms. The department has arrived at this assessment on the basis of reports from all the districts in the State.
Sources said as many as 20 districts face shortage of not only classrooms and but also of teachers for an estimated 78,000 class XI students. This is because over 4.41 lakh standard 10 students were mass-promoted while there is a space for over 3.64 lakh in these districts.
These 20 include the tribal districts of Panchmahals, Dahod and Banaskantha, which have traditionally had a poor SSC results, averaging a pass percentage of 45 to 47 for the last three years. North Gujarat’s Mehsana and central Gujarat’s Kheda, whose class 10 results average around 50%, are also facing the shortage.
The Gujarat Government has expressed its inability to construct new classrooms at this juncture and has asked the schools to either implement the odd-even formula or run the schools in shifts or both.
The government has also allowed intake of 75 students against the permitted 60 per class. However, sources pointed out that this might sound good but the schools especially in the rural areas did not classes big enough to accommodate more students. Even the permitted 60 is more, says an official, requesting anonymity.
