More than 3,000 government schools across the State have closed down on account of zero or negligible enrolment of children in the last five years, according to Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar.
The Minister, however, argued that the decision on closure was inevitable. “There is no point in running schools which have less than 10 students. There is a good school building and teachers, but no students.” He said he would convene a meeting of education experts and scholars to elicit their opinion on improving quality of education and to make them attractive. “We are doing injustice if we do not take urgent steps to address the problem. I am optimistic of arriving at some solutions before the next academic year,” the Minister said.
He said 28 government schools had been closed in Tirthahalli taluk of Shimoga district, from where he hails. The number of students seeking admission to government schools has declined by nearly three lakhs in the last few years.
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The government has provided every infrastructure, but students are not enrolling. In some schools, there are more than three or four teachers for eight to 10 students, he said.