No new govt primary schools in state for next five years

Govt has decided to use funds to improve infrastructure and bring about a quality change in teaching at existing schools

No new government primary school will be opened in the state for the next five years.

The government will also not extend any financial support in the form of grant-in-aid to any new privately-run school during this period.

Instead, the Yogi Adityanath government has decided to use all its energy and money in strengthening infrastructure of existing schools as well as in bringing about a quality improvement in the teaching in the existing around 1.60 lakh schools being run by it across Uttar Pradesh.

The decision taken in this regard has been conveyed to the director, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, all director level officials of education department besides secretary, Basic Shiksha Parishad and Basic Shiksha Adhikaris (BSAs) of different districts by special secretary Ved Pratap Singh through a missive dated July 13.

The decision marks a major change in government’s approach towards basic education in the state.

As per the order, the state government has decided to systematically focus on bettering the primary and upper primary schools being run by it.

As part of the initiative, the government plans to post adequate number of teachers in these schools as per number of students there to maintain the teacher-taught ratio as per the set norms, ensure proper and regular attendance of teachers and students alike, robust monitoring mechanism for academic activities being undertaken as well as provide a fillip to academic capabilities of the students enrolled in these schools, informed a senior education department official.

So, the state government has decided not to open any new primary school in the next five years.

After five years, the government will review its decision and depending on the state of affairs decide the future course of action.

There are 1, 13,247 primary schools (class 1 to 5) and 45,590 upper primary schools (class 1 to 8) in the state where around 4, 94,940 teachers teach 1.62 crore students.

The moves comes after an organisation ‘Gram Vikas Seva Samiti’ running Seth Manilal Swarankar Primary School in Dhobahan village of Allahabad requested the Centre to provide school financial aid under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act.

The school education and literacy department of the union human resource development ministry wrote to the state government in this regard on June 24, 2014.

However, the state government in its reply to the Centre dated March 20, 2015 clearly conveyed that it was not possible for it to extend financial support to the school concerned.

The Samiti then moved the high court.

The Allahabad high court in its order dated November 5, 2015 instructed the state government to review its policy on granting financial aid to the schools.