Mumbai: Welcoming the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to the State Education Department for closing down 1,300 rural schools, State Education Minister Vinod Tawde said it would help the government clear its stance in a judicial trial rather than one by the media. “It’s a blessing in disguise,” he said.
Recently, the State government had said it would be closing down 1,314 rural schools as they had less than 10 students enrolled in them. Mr. Tawde said, “The government will submit a detailed chart of all 1,300 schools to the NHRC to present its side. It will respond to the judicial trial properly, legally and in the spirit of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.” He said students and teachers were shifted from these schools to bigger ones nearby to provide quality education.
Mr. Tawde said students and teachers at 257 of these 1,300 schools have already been shifted, while 280 are in the process. Shifting of nearly 755 schools is stuck in technical obstacles, which are being resolved by the Education Officer, Chief Executive Officer and Director (Education) at the local level. He said in 2008, the Central government had allowed the closure of 686 local community schools in interior rural pockets under the RTE Act.
Of the 7,389 community village schools that existed in the State at the time, the Central government had allowed 3,384 to be converted into primary schools in 24 districts. Mr. Tawde said students in small schools with few students ended up getting low-quality education due to poor morale and social interaction, and diminshed school activities. These issues, he said, automatically get addressed in a bigger school.
