Bhubaneswar: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has found several loopholes in implementation of Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) in the state.
In its report on general and social sector for the year ending March 2015, the CAG said, “Though the RMSA framework provides for one secondary school within a reasonable distance of five km from the residence, 3,167 eligible habitations did not have any secondary school. There was absence of preparatory work like formation of Core Group for micro planning at district level by conducting survey for assessing the requirement of infrastructure and prioritising them to implement the scheme.”
The auditor noticed that the number of government schools in the state decreased from 58 per cent in 2009-10 to 53 per cent in 2014-15. However, the percentage of enrolment therein to the total enrolment increased from 56 to 59 during the same period. “Despite increase in enrolment, the government schools were not equipped with required teaching staff and infrastructure,” it said. In all 50 sampled government schools, teachers were not available for five subjects as of March 2015 and in 13 schools, the teacher-pupil ratio was 1:31 to 1:56 against the norm of 1:30.
The auditor also noticed that there were 2,359 teachers in 240 schools against the requirement of 1,821 teachers, resulting in excess of 538 teachers. At the same time, in 974 schools, there were 4,256 teachers against the requirement of 7,202, a shortage of 2,946, it pointed out.
“The quality of education suffered due to non-recruitment of 4,790 teachers and inadequate training to them,” it added.
The government came under criticism for not preparing any plan to implement vocational courses at the secondary school level. The state could establish only 773 new schools out of 1,535 proposed in the perspective plan.
The CAG also found that there was shortfall in construction of new schools and strengthening of infrastructure in existing schools, resulting in classroom-student ratio exceeding the norm of 1:40.
The physical milestones approved by the Union government could not be achieved even after six years of implementation in the state.
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