Schools run by Surat district panchayat see huge drop in students number

SURAT: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Gunotsav and Praveshotsav are some of the measures taken by Gujarat government to improve elementary education in the state. However, they seem to have miserably failed in the primary schools run by district panchayat in nine talukas of Surat.
Data sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act reveals that the number of students in the schools run by district panchayat has seen a huge fall by almost 30,000 from 2014-15 to 2017-18.

The information under RTI was sought by member of the district panchayat Darshan Nayak. The data revealed that number of students in the primary schools in Choriyasi, Mandvi, Olpaad, Palsana, Kamrej, Mangrol, Mahuva, Umarpada and Bardoli was recorded at 1,43,963 in 2014-15 and it decreased drastically at 1,14,186 in 2017-18.

“The district panchayat is spending crores of rupees in improving elementary education in the district. But when we see the result on ground, it is quite disturbing. In the last four years, 30,000 students seem to have left the panchayat-run schools. The high drop out ratio could be due to lackadaisical attitude of teachers or the authorities,” Nayak said.

“I have written to the state government seeking immediate measures to contain the reducing student strength in the panchayat-run schools. The state government needs to seriously analyse its initiatives and schemes,” Nayak said.

District primary education officer J M Kharadi told TOI, “The primary reason for reduction of students in the schools is rapid urbanization, parents’ unwillingness to keep their wards in Gujarati medium schools, migrant population etc. Majority of our schools impart education in Gujarati. We have only four Hindi medium schools, a school imparting education in Oriya language and a couple of English medium schools in Umarpada, Mandvi and Olpaad.”

Kharadi said there are 978 schools in nine talukas in the district and the total strength of teachers is 4,690. The panchayat is paying monthly wages to these teachers, which comes to about Rs 25 crore. This way, the total expenditure on maintenance of schools, teachers’ wages and other expenses comes to around Rs 300 crore.