45% schools in J&K headless: Niti report

Tribune News Service
Srinagar, October 19

Despite the authorities’ tall claims, Niti Aayog’s School Education Quality Index (SEQI) presents a dismal picture of education in Jammu and Kashmir, with low enrolment figures and 45 per cent schools without any head.The state has been ranked 16 of 20 large states with Kerala, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Assam the best-performing. 

The report says J&K has been found lacking on several parameters, such as learning outcome domain and  infrastructure. In ‘access outcome domain’, it has only improved from 20 to 24 per cent in the last two years. Infrastructure and facilities have improved by 5 per cent, but the overall performance remains far from satisfactory at 34 per cent. 

“A child in the 6-14 age bracket will be considered out of school if she/he has never been enrolled in an elementary school or if after enrolment has been absent from school without prior intimation for a period of 45 days or more”. The report says in J&K only 1.8 per cent schoolchildren were enrolled in mainstream schools up to 2019. The percentage of “identified out-of-school” children was 1.9 per cent in the 2015 academic year, which decreased to 1.8 per cent in 2016. The percentage of schools with computer-aided learning facilities at the the elementary level, developed and operationalised under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, is a mere 3.9%. The percentage of secondary schools with computer labs has fallen from 48% to 38% . According to government norms,  each school is mandated to have a minimum of five subject teachers, specially for core subjects: English, Language, Mathematics, Science and Social Science. In J&K only 10% schools have subject-specific teachers.