There is a general appreciation of the public, particularly in rural parts, for the emphasis laid on admission to 25 per cent free seats under Right To Education quota in private schools, by the School Education Department, in the district.
This, in fact, was one of the main agenda during the grama sabha meeting conducted on May 1. According to official figures, entry-level admissions could be made to 2066 seats in matriculation schools and 1259 seats in 106 nursery and primary schools.
But, this is not sweet music to the government elementary schools that have been struggling to sustain the student strength through deploying teachers for door-to-door campaigns by teachers for student enrolment.
There are fears that the decline in admission in government schools caused by the desire of poor sections of the society to avail themselves of free education for wards under RTE quota would inevitably cause short-term and long-term repercussions.
The short-term consequence is transfer of teachers of the proportion of students fall below 1:30 ratio, to other schools. And the long-term consequence, continuous erosion of student strength will lead to the very closure of the schools in a matter of few years, say worried school heads.
The government elementary schools have, no doubt, been attracting students for the English medium sections. The parents are initially impressed by the combination of freebies and English medium education. They subsequently get disappointed after making out that the English medium sections are also handled by teachers appointed for Tamil medium education.
There is no reason why the government that is required to compensate private schools for carrying out free admissions under RTE must not utilise the funds for appointing teachers exclusively for the English medium sections in the government schools, a headmaster of an elementary school in the city said.
