Pay a rupee to retain students

Pay a Rupee to Retain Students.

In an interesting proposal to arrest the downward trend of school drop outs in the state, the Government Best Teachers’ Association (Awardee Teachers’ Association) has come up with a new proposal. “Pay one rupee to each child who attends the school. They would not leave the school at all and thereby the government schools would get strengthened” the proposal states.

Some members of the Association, who met the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy at Camp Office on Tuesday, have put forward this proposal to him. The Chief Minister, said that, he would consider that proposal, advised the teachers to concentrate on imparting quality education as well as educating the parents through School Management Committee (SMCs) the need to send their wards to schools regularly and ensure their stay inside the premises till school hours are over.

“Our proposal is in addition to the Mid-day Meal scheme which is being implemented already. Giving a rupee to each student will not be that burdensome to the government. It would lure students to come to school regularly. It would also attract the parents- most of them were poor and downtrodden- to send their children to schools. Once the students reach school, the teachers would take the responsibility and engage them with some kind of academic activity or the other,” B Srinivasa Rao, President of the Association felt.

Asked while the mid-day meals scheme failed to retain students how can they expect a single rupee would make the wards attend the school, he said both are different. “A cup of meal may not be that much interesting to a student but a rupee would certainly make a difference” he opined.

Government schools in villages, mandals in almost all districts have singularly failed to retain students in spite of concerted efforts by the state government for the past several years. A recent data released by Rajiv Vidya Mission (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) reveal that only five districts have more than 10 mandals which had cent per cent retention. The retention is calculated for five years and 100% means that a student who joins in Class I stays in the same school till his class V.

East Godavari with 17 mandals topped the list of highest number of mandals having cent per cent retention. West Godavari (16), Visakhapatnam (15), Guntur and Krishna (10 each). Hyderabad and Mahbubnagar were the worst of all with not even a single mandal having cent percent retention of students. Medak and Nizamabad have one each. In all, just 114 mandals out of 1,100 plus mandals in the state could retain students totally, the data said.

A survey shows that student drop out was mainly due to falling standards in government schools, lesser teacher attendance, no proper evaluation of student in their initial years, parental occupation etc. Parents preferred to join their wards in private schools- which have been -in spite of higher fee structure- imparting a proper, regular and well-designed curriculum.

Differing with the perception that private schools are better than government schools, Srinivasa Rao said parents have been under a wrong notion that their children would come up well if they study in private schools. “Private schools start taking students from the age of three years where as in government schools, the students will be taken from the age of five. Once joined in private schools, no parent prefers to send them again to government schools” he analysed.

“We explained this fact to the Chief Minister and asked him to amend the rules so that government schools also enroll students at the age of three. Unless, we introduce LKG system in Government schools, sarkari schools will not thrive” Srinivasa Rao added.