Indore: Despite closure, 40 government schools in Indore existed on paper for last two years leaving a possibility of corruption and misleading government to earn extra bucks.
The 40 schools along with 10 other identified schools are being closed down completely in Indore to prevent any such possibility of these govt schools existing on record. This is being done by cancelling DISE (District Information System) number, as shared by district project coordinator Akshay Rathore.
For the first time, all those government schools which do not have sufficient students will be shut completely even on paper. The schools will be merged into middle schools or nearby schools to ensure enough population in school to make the school feasible for govt.
Due to lack of students, 10 such govt schools have already been identified and will be soon merged with nearby government schools and the new rule from this year onwards will shut the merging schools completely. Indore circle including Depalpur and Sanwer have over 10 schools where there are barely any students since last two years.
All the schools that are being merged were primary schools. These primary schools with barely any students will now be a part of the middle school run in the area.
“A government school in Pando Pani area, Mhow, exists on paper since last 2 years but there has been no student in the school for last 2 years,” Rathore shared. He added that these schools existing on paper often cause multiplicity and issues in accounting.
“We had merged 40 schools in 2018 and this year, 10 schools are confirmed for the merging process,” Rathore said. He added that all the schools previously also merged will be accounted for and shut completely removing their DISE number.
Hence, the overall number of schools shutting down in record will be much higher and estimated to be around 100 in Indore.
Overall in Madhya Pradesh, over 12,876 such schools have been identified and will be shut down completely.
To finalise the schools to be shut down, a review will start across the state soon.
Orders to review all the schools and provide the complete list of schools to be shut down were issued to district officials.
“Schools where the number of students is 0 to 20 will be reviewed,” Rathore said. He added that such schools will merge with nearby schools.
“Teachers teaching in such schools will also be transferred to other services in office or placed in other government schools as per vacancy,” Rathore said.
He added that Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior and Jabalpur divisions will have the maximum number of schools to be closed in the list. “It is surety as the number of students in cities, as we have noticed over the last couple of years that the graph of students in city in government schools is continuously falling,” Rathore said.
According to the rules of the School Education Department, it is necessary to have more than 20 students to run the middle school, whereas the primary school can be operated only when there are 40 students.
“In schools where there are no students, teachers are not needed. Such schools will be merged with any nearby schools. Teachers will also be merged in other schools. It is currently being reviewed. Instructions have also been issued to the districts,” Lokesh Jatav, commissioner, State Education, said.
Number of Schools with no students are:
Indore - 10
Dewas ‑18
Shivpuri-16
Ujjain ‑19
Dhar ‑21
Khargone ‑27
Sagar-48
Damoh ‑27
Panna-27
