Only 22% general students enrolled in state govt schools

Parvesh Sharma/ Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Hisar, April 3

The state government is striving to increase enrolment in government schools, but the Education Department data (up to March 31) has revealed that government schools have a majority of students belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Backward Classes. But those belonging to the general category prefer to study in private schools.

The number of students belonging to the SC and weaker sections (17.44 lakh) is more than four times the number of students belonging to the general category (4.95 lakh or 22.1 per cent of the total 22.39 lakh students) in state government schools.

Educationalists say the government school environment strengthens the roots of social harmony among students from various castes. “This skewed ratio of students from various castes will have an adverse impact on the social structure of the new generations,” they said.

“Mainly poor are sending their children to government schools as they could not afford fee of private schools. The number of students belonging to the general category in government schools is declining. The government must provide better infrastructure and faculty to its schools to compete with private ones,” said Ramesh Malik, president, Haryana Master Varg Association.

Dr Sanjiv Kumar, a professor at the Haryana School of Business, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, said the trend pointed towards the gap in quality of education in the government and private schools. “The absence of quality education in government schools has led to segregation of students on caste lines. Its social implications are even more dangerous,” he said.

“Families having meagre resources prefer to send their wards to government schools. Government facilities such as free education and scholarships also attract a large number of SC students,” said a Hisar-based government school teacher.

Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said the state government was considering introduction of English as a subject from Class I in government schools to improve the quality of education.