Post merger, abandoned Jammu govt schools face uncertainty

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 7

After the merger of thousands of government schools by the previous BJP-PDP coalition, uncertainty looms over the fate of abandoned institutions in the Jammu region.

Pertinently, more than 3,900 government schools across the state were brought under rationalisation (clubbing) scheme initiated by then Education Minister Naeem Akhtar in the BJP-PDP coalition in 2015.

The merger was done to improve the poor enrolment of students and pupil-teacher ratio. The rationalisation of schools was started to balance the teacher-student ratio, which was 15:1 at that time. During the process, 2,406 schools, including 1,834 working from rented accommodations and 572 government-owned, were clubbed in Kashmir. In the Jammu region, the strength of the clubbed government schools was 1,498. All schools were established under the flagship scheme Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

Sources said like the Kashmir province, a majority of the abandoned buildings of the clubbed government schools in the Jammu region remained unutilised since long. No serious efforts were made by the school education department for their utilisation. They said a few months ago, the education department had made some attempts to put these buildings to use but no progress was made in this regard.

When contacted, Anuradha Gupta, Director, School Education, Jammu, told The Tribune that that the process was on to sort out the vexed issue of the utilisation of the abandoned school buildings in the Jammu division.

“We have already apprised the authorities that the department does not require these buildings now. However, talks are on with the deputy commissioners of all 10 districts of the Jammu province regarding the utilisation of these school buildings,” Gupta said.

When asked about the exact strength of the abandoned government school buildings in the Jammu division, she said: “There is no exact break-up in all 10 districts of the Jammu province but their approximate strength is around 1,000.”

When asked whether there was any proposal in the pipeline to establish kindergarten schools in the buildings, Gupta said: “At present, there is no such proposal for consideration.”