Baripada: A dismal picture of primary education emerges from some areas of Mayurbhanj district amid reports that more schools are on the verge of closure due to shortage of adequate students.
Primary education, though a priority sector for the government, has been plagued by problems including shortage of teachers and absenteeism.
Though the government has launched a host of programmes and schemes to attract students to schools and arrest the dropout rate, the plunging number of students in some schools has raised concern in many quarters. The MDM programme, free dress and free bicycles seem to have been ineffective in some cases.
As per the guidelines of school and mass education department, schools having strength of less than 10 students will be closed.
In 2015, nine schools had been closed citing this reason while 13 more schools met the same fate last year. It was learnt that 38 schools having less than 10 students will be closed in the district.
The state project director of Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA) in his leter-4926 (dated June 22, 2017) had directed the project coordinator of Zilla Sarba Sikhya Abhiyan to prepare a report on those schools having less than 10 or 15 students in the district.
The project coordinator in Mayurbhanj district reported July 20 that there were seven schools having less than five students while 31 schools have a strength of less than 10 students.
Significantly, there are 129 schools where the strength of students is less than 15. If the guideline is to be followed, a total of 38 schools will be closed down.
However, the department hasn’t yet made a clarification on the closure of schools. Many observers felt that the government should take measures to improve the situation and run the schools instead of closing them.
They said the kids who left the schools for various reasons should be identified and brought back to schools.
The development has raised a question mark on the efforts of SSA and district administration, which has been running the ‘Mu Bi Padhibi’ Yojana to attract more students to schools. The programme has been running since April 1, 2013. The house-to-house survey conducted at that time identified 5,525 kids (aged six to 14 years) who were out of schools. They were admitted to various residential schools, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, special residential training centres and special schools based on their merit and capability.
It was learnt that many officials who were part of ‘Mu Bi Padhibi’ were transferred elsewhere, adversely affecting the programme.
Project coordinator of district SSA Satrughna Kar said that if those schools are closed, the students will be admitted to the nearby schools. PNN