Although the Government has not yet taken any decision on closure of schools in the process of pronounced rationalisation of number of schools and teachers, a kind of fear persists among teachers, parents and students.
Teacher and student unions are of the opinion that if schools having less than 20 student strength are closed and merged with other schools, at least 250 schools are likely to be closed in the district. If they take the criterion of 10 students, still more schools will get closed, they opine.
“Merger and closure are one and the same. If you merge a school with other school at least one school will have to disappear. This is being done by the Government in the name of rationalisation only to shirk its responsibility of provision of education to poor students residing in rural areas and urban slums,” says Shanthan, State vice-president of the Democratic Teachers’ Federation.
“This is an evil design to distance the poor from the right to education which is one of the primary rights of every citizen. The process to reduce the number of schools is being carried out by authorities silently with oral instructions from the above. However, our agitation to stop the efforts under the banner of the Save Education Committee comprising representatives of teacher and student unions would continue,” he said.
Irony
Irony is that despite the Government providing necessary infrastructure and improving the facilities year after year, student strength at government schools is diminishing. Their attendance has thinned following migration of students to corporate and private schools. As of now, there are 1,160 Government schools with 1.24 lakh students and 5,520 teachers in the district.
Reports say that 120 upper primary schools and 47 primary schools are having below 10 students each. However, they have two to five teachers. The Education department was said to have already collected the details of schools, students and teachers and sent them to its Commissionerate, but is not disclosing the figures.
Contacted, District Educational Officer Nampally Rajesh said that he had not received any instructions or guidelines from higher authorities so far regarding rationalisation. “In a routine course, we have prepared a list of schools, their student strength and the number of teachers working in them,” he told The Hindu .
