Centre flags dropout, transition rates; Punjab told pull up socks
Navneet Sharma
CHANDIGARH: The Centre has expressed concern over the high dropout and low transition rates in the state government-run schools in Punjab.
The Union ministry of education, which recently reviewed the performance indicators and progress made by the school education department, has flagged the high dropout rate in elementary and secondary classes, particularly in ‘aspirational districts’ Ferozepur and Moga, in the state. In 14 of the 22 districts, the boys’ dropout rate is more than 12% at secondary level whereas it is “very high” in Ferozepur and Moga districts at 14% and 16%.
The dropout rate of Scheduled Caste children is also 16% at the secondary level, according to the minutes of the meeting of the project approval board for Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, a centrally sponsored scheme, issued by the Union ministry of education on Thursday.
Similarly, the decline in transition rate – percentage of students advancing from one level of schooling to the next, say from middle to secondary – is another concern highlighted by the ministry. “The transition rate from secondary to higher secondary is less than 80% in districts. The lowest transition rate of 55% is in
Tarn Taran district and 65% in Ferozepur district,” it said.
The Central ministry has asked the state to take measures to reduce the student dropout and improve the transition rate at all levels. The school education department officials had informed the ministry that to reduce the dropout rate, increase the transition and improve the learning levels, the department had started an enrolment drive in all districts, introduced English medium, improved educational and infrastructure facilities and undertaken a learning enhancement programme.
The government schools have seen a 10% increase in student enrolment this year with many parents, who were financiallystressed due to loss of job or income during the coronavirus pandemic-induced lockdown, shifting their children from private ones in the past five months. Also, there are reports that several migrant workers have moved back to their home states with their families. School education secretary Krishan Kumar, who attended the virtual meeting of PAB chaired by Union school education secretary Anita Karwal on June 25, could not be contacted.
281 single-teacher schools
The school education department has also been asked to carry out rationalisation of teaching staff to make sure there is no single-teacher school as well as maintain subject-wise pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in the government-run schools in the state as per the norms under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009.
As per the document, Punjab has 281 single-teacher schools – 279 are primary schools and two middle schools – and each of these is managed by a lone teacher. Though the overall PTR at various levels is better than the national norm, the department is facing a problem in maintaining subject-wise PTR at secondary level with one science teacher for every 84 students. The PTR for mathematics is one teacher for 79 students. The ministry has asked the state to ensure required number of subject teachers at the secondary level.
37% seats vacant in residential schools for girls
Of the 3,950 seats in 35 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBVs), 1,454 seats, or say 36.81%, remained vacant with the maximum unfilled seats being in the residential schools for girls of classes 6 to 8. As against the targeted enrolment of 1,000 girls in 10 such schools, almost half the seats were vacant. Similarly, several seats remained vacant in two other categories of special KGBV schools for classes 6 to 12. The state government has been asked to restrict the large dropouts from these residential schools in classes 11 and 12. KGBVs were established to provide access and quality education to girls from disadvantaged groups to ensure their transition from elementary to senior secondary level.