‘Enrolment in UP primary schools declines’

Count of children enrolled in primary and upper primary schools in the state declined from 3.71 crore in 2012-13 to 3.64 crore in 2015-16.

As enrolment in government schools declined by 18.6%, it increased by 36.5% in private unaided schools during 2010-16. These were the findings of report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on general and social sector for the year ending March 31, 2016. The CAG noted on an average there were 20 lakh dropouts per year. But as per data provided by the state government, the average was 0.63 lakh children pear year during 2011-16 only.

Against the sanctioned strength of 7.60 lakh teachers, there was shortage of 1.75 lakh teachers. Also, teachers were not deployed rationally as 17,732 primary schools and 1349 upper primary schools having enrolment of more than 150 students did not meet pupil teacher ratio (PTR) while 7264 primary schools and 2377 upper primary schools having enrolment of less than 50 students exceeded the PTR.

Further, the RTE Act (April 2010) required that all teachers not possessing minimum qualification should acquire the same within 5 years (by March 2015).

Audit analysis revealed that even after 6 years of the commencement of the Act, 18,119 teachers posted in primary schools and 30,730 in upper primary schools did not possess the required qualification.

The CAG also found large scale anomaly in purchasing books. Free text books were not provided to 6.22 lakh children in the state during 2012-16 by the Uttar Pradesh government though adequate funds were received under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA).

“Also uniforms were not provided to 97 lakh children during 2012-16 through adequate funds were received under the SSA,” the CAG report suggests.