South Malwa dists lead in government school enrolments

BATHINDA : South Malwa districts have witnessed a higher rate of enrollment in government schools than the state average this year.

State education department officials attribute it to the strengthened infrastructure at the government schools. Also, since the pandemic outbreak that has affected household incomes, parents are shifting their wards from private schools to the nearest government-run schools.

According to the state education department data compiled early this week, Ferozepur saw a surge of nearly 13% in enrollment for classes 9 and 10 when compared with the 2019-20 academic session.

The district education authorities have already registered 14,698 students for the high school section only. In 2019-20, the district had 13,028 students. The admissions for the current session are still on across the state.

Last year, the government high schools in the state had a total enrolment of 3.91 lakh whereas in the 2020-21 session, 4.13 lakh students have registered in government schools.

This year, the state average of student intake in the high school classes is 5.59% higher than the previous year.

Muktsar registered seen an increase of 9.34%, Mansa (8.69%) and Fazilka (7.07%) in high school classes.

Similarly, in the senior secondary classes (11 and 12), Ferozepur is leading with 10,203 students this year with an increase of 22.56% followed by Bathinda (21.16%) and Mansa (19.89%).

The state average in these classes has also improved by 18.11%.

In 2019-20 session, the government schools had 31,2534 whereas this year schools have enrolled 36,9121 students for the senior secondary classes.

In the primary wing (classes 1-5), against the state average of 4.36% of this increase, Bathinda and Ferozepur have topped the total tally.

With 47,992 students already enrolled, Bathinda has registered a jump of 5.96% followed by Ferozepur an increase of 4.74% with 42,734 students than 2019-20.

In the middle section (classes 6-8), Fazilka, Ferozepur and Bathinda have gained top slots and they have registered higher than the state average improvement of 3.87% students.

Mansa district education officer (secondary education) Surjit Singh Sidhu said, “Government schools have qualified staff and the infrastructure has improved significantly. It is after four years that government schools have once again started becoming a preferred choice of parents belonging to the lower middle class and farmers.”