Shakir Mir
SRINAGAR
Marred with allegations and apparent flaws, the government schools are revamping along the lines of prominent private schools. The state education department, notwithstanding the dismal track-record, is mulling to start “smart classes” by upgrading many govt schools into “model schools”.
As per the reports, government has identified a number of schools that will undergo the process. But on the face of apparent loopholes and dismal figures existing in govt schooling, it seems the step is unlikely to strike a larger perceptible change towards the state-run schools.
Already, there are as many as 70 government schools that have teachers but no students on their rolls.
There are scores of government schools in South Kashmir where enrolment is thin but teacher strength is considerably high. For instance, in Boys Primary School Tailwani, Anantnag, two teachers are posted for two students at the ration of 1 percent.
Government data suggests that there are around 1.43 lakh teachers to 16 lakh students in government schools. But some officials within the department claim 16 lakh may not be correct figures since many schools reportedly have registered blown-up figures so as to extract more money for uniforms and mid-day meals.
Earlier this year, a great blow was dealt to the education sector when the number of government schools registering pass percentage of below 20% totalled 68 out of which 27 scored zero percent.
According to a survey of Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), 83 percent of the schools in Jammu and Kashmir are without the internet facility and more than 12 percent without the library facility.
The survey revealed that in the 10+2 level schools, in the year 2012-13, there were 76.75 percent of schools without the facility of computers and internet. In 2013-14, 69.63 percent of the schools in Jammu and Kashmir still imparted education through age old methods. The poor facility in government schools is believed one of the main reasons for their poor results.
In face of bleak functioning of its school, it has to be seen how effective is this new initiative of the education department going to be.
