The data on the number of schools with no students seems to emphasise on one argument that experts and officials have often made — the need is not for more private or government schools, but to improve the quality of those that already exist.
While private school managements are for speedy clearances of new schools citing demand, experts point out that without strong emphasis on quality it would not be correct to give such permission.
One key problem is that the State government’s new set of norms for starting schools has been kept in abeyance by the High Court of Karnataka, after it was challenged by private school managements. Officials point out that in the absence of clear and enforceable norms, they cannot guarantee quality. D. Shashi Kumar, General Secretary of the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS), says “There are several schools that have strength of less than 50 students and they find it difficult to make admissions.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Ironically, he also points out that the demand for seats in some schools is so high that there are over 400 applications for just 60 seats. The Education Department data reveals that 211 government, 11 aided and 137 unaided schools have enrolment of less than 20 students in the primary school.