The Centre has decided to allow closure of government schools with zero enrolment and merger of those with very low enrolment.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development has formulated draft guidelines for the states to undertake rationalisation of elementary schools, set up under the Centre’s flagship programme — Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
The move comes more than a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s instructions to the school education department of the ministry in this regard. “The need for rationalisation arises due to the fact that the schools established more than a decade ago or even before may have undergone a change in terms of demand and supply,” an official said.
States are “now increasingly” realising that surplus schools, in excess of neighbourhood requirement, have somehow been established, which are “adversely” affecting the provisioning of resources, teaching-learning process, monitoring and supervision. “The rationalisation of small schools across states is aimed at making the system more efficient through better utilisation of available manpower and other resources,” the official added.
Under SSA, a huge schooling facility has been created over the years, with the setting up of about 2.04 lakh primary schools and 1.59 lakh upper primary schools up to 2015-16. “Situational analysis of existing schools done by some states depict that many villages or localities have two or more government schools functioning separately without feasible enrolment,” the official said.
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