Govt school teachers on a mission to boost enrolment

In an effort to boost enrolment in government schools, the district Education Department has set a target of increasing admissions by at least 10 per cent compared to the previous academic session. To motivate schools to achieve the goal, the department has introduced a competition, where schools demonstrating significant enrolment will be rewarded with certificates.

Schools achieving a 15 per cent increase in enrolment will be honoured with a bronze certificate, while those surpassing 20 per cent and 30 per cent, or higher, will receive silver and gold certificates, respectively. The authorities claimed that the move was aimed at encouraging teachers and heads to ensure higher enrolment.

To meet the targets, teachers have launched an extensive outreach programme 'Parvesh Utsav', personally visiting communities to persuade parents to enrol their wards. The primary focus is on bringing back dropouts and encouraging students from the previous session to continue in the same school.

As per official data, there are 778 government schools in the district, including primary, middle, high, and senior secondary. During the academic session 2024-25, government schools in the district had an enrolment of 1,23,230 students, while it was 1,26,515 students in the 2023-24 session. As per the department's projection, this year, the aim is to enrol at least 1.35 lakh students in schools across the district.

'Reaching out to parents'

"All school heads have been instructed to actively reach out to parents and enrol students. Our aim is to provide quality education to students. We provide free education, free uniform, midday meal and other facilities.” — Sudesh Thukral, District Education Officer