Assam govt. to close down over 400 govt-run primary schools running with zero enrolment

A top official of state education department said a total of 434 government run primary schools have been detected with zero enrolment in 2016-17.

“396 lower primary schools and 38 upper primary schools are running with zero enrolment. Apart from it, over 1300 primary schools running with less than 10 students,” the top official said.

The top education department official said the state government has decided to close down these zero enrolment primary schools.

Earlier, the state government had closed down 189 such schools.

The official further said that enrolment in state government run primary schools has been dramatically decreased in past five years, while the enrolment in private schools increased.

“In past five years, over 11 lakh enrolments decreased in the government run primary schools. In 2011, 55.70 lakh enrolments were recorded in government run primary schools, but it come down to 44.6 lakh in 2016-17. On the other hand, 3.15 lakh enrolments were recorded in private primary schools in 2011, but it increased to 10.9 lakh in 2016-17,” the official said.

On the other hand, National Achievement Survey (NAS) report revealed only 49 percent students in Class III achieved more than 50 percent marks in language and 33 percent children in Mathematics.

NAS report also said that, in Class V, number of children achieving more than 50 percent marks in language further declined to 24 percent and in Mathematics to 33 percent.

The top official said the drop-out rate at primary level is more than 6 percent in 14 districts.

In April last, the state had conducted the first phase of Gunotsav in 8 districts and the evaluation of the schools revealed that, only 6 per cent schools of eight districts were graded A+.

A total of 12,286 schools in Chirang, Barpeta, Kamrup (Metro), Morigaon, Hailakandi, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh and West Karbi Anglong were evaluated and a total of 7,15,930 students were appeared in the evaluation.

Only 777 schools or 6 per cent schools were managed to grade A+ following the evaluation.

Apart from it 2323 or 19 per cent schools graded A, 3106 or 25 per cent schools under B grade, 3302 or 27 per cent schools were graded C and 2778 or 23 per cent schools under D grade.

The second phase of Gunotsav would be held in Cachar, Jorhat, Charaideo, Sivsagar, Tinsukia, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Udalguri, Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong, Kamrup and Nagaon districts in next month.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)