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Karam Prakash
Tribune News Service
Patiala, July 11
Despite several benefits and scholarship programmes, the enrolment of students at government schools seems to be low, if gone by the example of Government Elementary School, Muhabbatpur, Patiala, which has only three students for the current academic session. These students belong to Class V. Lower classes have no students. Last year, the situation was little better. Eight students had enrolled at the school.
In addition to it, the school has two teachers, which is much higher than the stipulated pupil-teacher ratio of 30:1.
The teachers claimed that the District Education Office was aware of low enrolment because each school informed the higher authorities about the attendance record. As per the 2011 Census, the literacy rate of Muhabbatpur village was 74.39 per cent as against 75.84 per cent of Punjab.
When asked about it, schoolteacher Payal Aggarwal said, “Over the past a few years, families in the village have imposed faith in private schools, believing it would be better for their wards. The mushrooming of English-medium private schools in Kauli, a nearby village, has, in fact, led to a decline the number of students in the government schools.”
Last year, the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) had decided to close down the schools that had less than 20 students. As many as 800 such government schools were identified in the state. But the Education Department failed to merge these schools.
Madhu Barua, District Education Officer (Elementary), said, “We are following the Right To Education Act, wherein children in elementary school cannot be shifted to another school if the distance between their residence and the school is beyond 1 km. However, I have sent a report in this regard to the higher authorities.”
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