Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 28: A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India report presented in the Assembly Friday termed the elementary education in the state as ‘poor’ due to lapses on the part of School and Mass Education department.
Despite spending `23,193.60 crore, the state of elementary education remained poor mainly due to negligence of the department, the report said in its audit on ‘Elementary Education in the State’ during 2009-14.
The report termed the action of the department ‘deficient’ in terms of planning and cited poor implementation of the provisions of Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009.
The report said 1,544 unauthorised elementary schools were functioning in the state till March 2014 though RTE Act did not permit running of any unrecognised schools.
Till March 2014, 1,226 eligible habitations did not have primary schools within one km while 201 habitations did not have Upper primary school within three km, said the CAG report.
Similarly, enrolment at elementary stage decreased from 66.21 lakh in 2009-10 to 63.88 lakh in 2013-14, the report said, adding, quality of elementary education was affected as 3,440 to 8,739 schools were functioning with single teachers during 2009-14.
The report mentioned that 2,558 teachers’ posts (science and mathematics) remained vacant for years. Under-qualified teachers were continuing in 20,471 primary and 936 upper primary schools and were not made professionally qualified even as the deadline was set for August 2014.
Stating that rationalisation of vacancies was not done during the period, the report said, “Teacher-student ratio in some test checked schools remained as high as 1:187 and 1:272.” Similarly, 33,499 to 50,400 teachers’ posts remained vacant during 2009-14, it added.
