Struggling to survive,govt plans to merge nearly 13,450 primary schools

The instructions passed from the office of director primary education stated that out of nearly 33,000 primary schools in Gujarat,there are 13,450 primary schools that have 100 or less students.

Of these,6,826 primary schools have less than 50 students. Thus,the department has planned to merge these schools with the nearest school before the new academic session begins.

The district education officers (DEO) are required to identify such schools in their respective districts and submit a detailed report to the department for discussion with the education minister. At the moment,the DEOs have not been communicated about plans on how to use the school buildings that would be vacated after the proposed mergers.

“Despite the on-going vacations in schools,we are carrying out a survey of such schools. There are some schools where the number of students is even less than 10 and spending nearly Rs 30,000-40,000 on salaries only is not viable. It is a problem not only about students and teachers,but also of administration of such schools,” said Ahmedabad District Primary Education Officer M M Jani.

As per instructions,the information required to be collected from each district includes finding out if there are more than one school in a village and the number of students is less than 100 in any of these schools,then merge these keeping in mind the RTE Act that states provision of a school within a radius of 1 kilometre (for Class I-V) and 3 kilometres (for Class VI-VIII).

“Though there has been no objection from villagers on merging of girls and boys schools into one,we will see when such an issue is raised,” added Jani. Around 20-30 primary schools falling out of Ahmedabad municipal limits are expected to be merged while 7-10 are estimated within the city limits. “It might not be more than 10 such schools that are required to be merged,” said municipal school board chairman Jagdish Bhavsar.

The department claims that it has to employ separate teachers (Maths,Science and Language) for a class of students as less as 3-4. For students who commute within a radius of 1-3 km,the department is providing transportation.

Survival & mergers

13,450 primary schools with 100 and less students 6,726 primary schools with 50 and less students

Lower primaryschools

(Class I-V) to be merged within a radius of 1 km

Upper primary schools

(Class VI-VIII) to be merged within a radius of 3 km