Secondary education enrolment on decline

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 26

Despite tall claims of the government to improve the quality of education, the gross enrolment ratio has decreased from 66.29 per cent in 2014-15 to 66.1 per cent in 2015-16.

Further, 182 of 636 posts of headmaster and 1,412 of 3,682 posts of subject teacher sanctioned under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) are lying vacant.

This was revealed in the recently held Project Approval Board meeting for approval of the annual work plan and state Budget for 2016-17 under the Centrally sponsored scheme.

The meeting was organised in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Dr SC Khuntia, Secretary, School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD).

Sources said officers from Jammu and Kashmir who attended the meeting said the districts of Ramban (49.93 per cent), Shopian (54.15 per cent) and Kulgam (55.28 per cent) were below the state average in gross enrolment ratio due to non-availability of teachers.

They added that the districts of Ganderbal (32.27 per cent), Kulgam (27.8 per cent) and Baramulla (25.3 per cent) had high dropout rates.

The sources added that the Jammu and Kashmir Government discussed the issue of 185 teaching days in the state compared to the recommended 220 teaching days.

The state was sanctioned 636 new or upgraded schools by the Central ministry, out of which only 239 had been completed.

The construction in respect of 266 schools was yet to start due to various issues like delay by construction agency and shortage of funds. Further, the status of strengthening work in the existing 533 schools was also not satisfactory.

“The national assessment survey conducted by the National Council for Educational Research and Training for Class X indicates that 73 per cent, 87 per cent, 85 per cent and 88 per cent of the students scored 50 per cent or less in English, mathematics, science and social science, respectively, in Jammu and Kashmir,” said a statement from the HRD Ministry.

“This clearly indicates that the quality of education being imparted in the state needs to be strengthened through appropriate measures,” the statement read.

“The state has a parent-teacher ratio of 15:1 and there seems to be a need to identify actual requirements of teachers in the state and capacity building of existing teachers to ensure quality education,” it added.

The sources further claimed that Aadhaar enrolment of 59 per cent children in the age group of five to 18 years was yet to be done by the state. Around 661 schools were still functioning without electricity.

The RMSA was launched in March 2009 with the objective of enhancing access to secondary education and improving 

its quality. The implementation of the scheme started in 2009-10.