Eight teachers for two students in Lahaul-Spiti school, says minister

Notwithstanding the difficult topographical conditions, a government senior secondary school at Hansa in Lahaul-Spiti district has eight teachers and five non-teaching staff for mere two students.

Education Minister Rohit Thakur furnished this information during a debate under Rule 62 on the merger of schools with zero or less than five students, initiated by Lahaul-Spiti MLA Anuradha Rana in the Vidhan Sabha today. “The 12 primary schools in Lahaul Spiti that have been merged have 35 teachers for 21 students, which shows that there are almost two teachers for one student,” Rohit stated.

The minister said that there were 750 teachers for 2,100 students enrolled in government schools in Lahaul-Spiti, which works out to be even less than one teacher for three students. He added, “My request to all MLAs is to kindly cooperate in this endeavour of the rationalisation of schools, which is the need of the hour.”

He assured the House that all representations made by people would be examined but the merger of schools was aimed at bringing about qualitative improvement in the education sector.

The Education Minister said as far as the issue of school merger was concerned, there was need for strong willpower to take this decision. “The main reasons for the merger of schools is the continuous decline in enrolment of almost 5.13 lakh in the past 20 years in government schools. The decline in qualitative education is also a matter of grave concern,” he added.

The minister said the phenomenon of merger of schools was common in the country. While in all, 76,000 schools were merged in India, 5,200 were merged in Gujarat, 18,000 in MP, 14,000 in Maharashtra, 4,790 in in Jammu and Kashmir, 2,335 in Rajasthan, 1,671 in Uttarakhand, 26,000 in Uttar Pradesh and 623 in Haryana. The16th Finance Commission had also recommended the need for qualitative improvement in the education sector, he added.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu said the government would start a day boarding and a boarding school in Spiti. “We will shift children facing problems in going to the nearby school to the district headquarters school. The government remains committed to ensuring that not even a single child is deprived of the right to education,” he added.

Lahaul-Spiti MLA Anuradha Rana urged the government to reconsider the issue of merger of schools as in tribal and difficult areas it becomes difficult to traverse even half a km. “Pre-nursery and pre-primary students are not being included in the enrolment, which is not correct. Also there is some inaccuracy in figures,” she said.

Directions issued for merged schools

• Students enrolled in a school merged with another school will have the choice to either shift to the other school or any other institution of his choice
• Deputy Directors, Higher Education and Elementary Education, to ensure smooth transition of students and that none of them drops out due to merger