Enrolment in govt schools drop

Decline by 5% at primary level

​Hyderabad: There has been steady decline of 5 per cent at primary level and 2 per cent at upper primary level in the enrollment in government schools from 2015-16 onwards. The decline in enrolment is said to be on account of lack of teachers and proper amenities in these schools.

The Project Approval Board (PAB) of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has pointed out that some of districts which have low rate of enrolment at upper primary level are Nirmal (54.85 per cent), Khammam (60 per cent), Siddipet (62.83 per cent) and Nizamabad (66 per cent).

The annual average dropout rate is 7.7 per cent at primary level which is also very high. Eight districts have witnessed more than 10 per cent drop-out rate at primary level. Scheduled Tribes student drop-out rate is also very high, 12 per cent at primary level, the PAB said.

According to United Teachers Federation state secretary Chava Ravi, declining number of teachers in the government schools is one of the main reasons for the fall in enrolment and for growing dropout rate. For the past five years there has been no recruitment, he said.

Due to less number of teachers, the schools were run with the Vidya volunteers and under such circumstances one cannot expect quality teaching in the schools.

Added to this, parents are lured by the English medium in the private schools. Despite high cost parents were getting their wards admitted in those schools.

Telangana Headmasters Association president G Mallikarjuna Sarma said that more number of holidays in the government schools than the private schools was one of the major reason for the parents to lose confidence in government schools. The total working days in the government schools are 220.

A school running with just two women teachers would forego about 20 per cent of the teaching days as they were entitled for 27 special casual leaves. There are 2000 single teacher schools and if the teacher is absent there would be no one to take care of the students.

As the people were not involved in running the government schools, supervision on them has come down and in some villages people do not know who their teacher is, said Sarma.

Speaking on the issue chief whip in Legislative Council and MLC P Sudhakar Reddy said that though the enrolment rate has been low in the past two years, this year it would improve as the government has taken several steps to attract the students to government institutions.

As many as 1.5 lakh students have enrolled this year in the government schools. The government has improved the amenities in the schools, introduced English medium, it is giving special funds for maintenance and has taken measures to ensure better teaching in the schools. He further said that the government would examine the findings of the PAB and would take necessary measures.

Deputy floor leader of Congress in the Legislative Assembly Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said that the government had failed to implement the provisions of the Right to Education Act, being brought by the UPA government.

Programmes like Badi Bata have become eyewash activities to instill confidence in the people on the government schools. Instead of providing good amenities in the schools, the government has been opening residential schools with an eye on votes.