Enrolment of students declined after merger of govt schools, finds study

INFRA BETTER However, infrastructure facilities improved after the merger of schools

JAIPUR: Enrolment in government schools declined after elementary schools were merged with other schools, said a study conducted by the Centre for Policy Research (CPR).

More than 20,000 schools in the state were merged with other schools starting 2013-14; the elementary schools were either merged with secondary schools or other elementary schools.

CPR, a think thank with its headquarters in New Delhi, studied 11,578 such schools to analyse the changes in enrolment rate, drop-out rate and teacher-student ratio among other parameters.

The study concluded that the enrolment of students with disability declined by 21.98% in the elementary schools, which were consolidated with other schools between 2013 and 2015. Moreover, the percentage of decline in the enrolment for students with disability was 22.36% for the schools, which were merged between 2015 and 2017.

Enrol ment o f g i r l s a l s o declined by 6.10% in elementary schools merged between 2013 and 2015.

Between 2015 and 2017, the enrolment declined by 3.65% for girls in the merged schools.

The report said that out of the schools closed between 2014-15, 66% had enrolment greater than 50 in the academic year 2013-14.

However, the report said that t he classroom- grade ratio, which is the number of classr o o ms f o r e a c h g r a de, has increased. Only 11% schools had at least one classroom for each grade in 2013, but in 2017, 22% schools had at least one classroom for each grade.

The s t u d y s h o ws majo r increase in the school infrastructure facilities after the merger.

While 4 8 % s c hools had a library in 2013-14, after consolidation 87% schools had a library in 2017. Similar increase was seen in terms of other facilities in the school, such as boundary wall, electricity, playground, drinking water, toilets, among others.

The study said that there was a greater decline in enrolment in merged schools compared to all government schools in the state. The decline, study stated, is highest for students with disability, followed by the SC and ST students. After the merger of s chools, t here has been an increase in the average number of teachers per school in the state as none of the consolidated schools, which were observed in the study, has less than two teachers.