In centenary school, only three enrolments this academic year

MYSURU: The Gadhi Pet Divided Primary School, Nanjumalige, in the city is celebrating its centenary year. This teaching fraternity is planning to celebrate the landmark event before December this year.
This school, located in the heart of the city, has all facilities including teachers and the required infrastructure. For locals, this school was the centre of attraction till a decade ago. But now everything has changed - only three students enrolled for Class 1; last year the number was five.

Locals and teachers are worried about poor enrolment, and are visiting the neighbourhood to ensure that more students enrol.

This is not the story of Gadhi Pet government school alone. Though all government schools of the city start on May 28, enrolment in most of the government-run schools in the city are still in single digits. Teachers are given the task of bringing students from neighbourhood areas, especially dropouts, late admissions and children with special needs.

The school headmaster told STOI that compared to previous years, enrolment for upper classes is increasing. "The total strength of the school was nine, but has now increased to 27. We got two students from a local private English medium school into Class 6 this year. This is proof of the quality of education we offer. But the problem is with enrolment for Class 1," he explained.

"We have all facilities, and are planning several new initiatives to improve the quality of teaching in schools. We are hopeful of increasing enrolment in the coming years through new interventions," he said.

RTE impact

According to sources in the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), one of the major reasons for the declining admissions at the Class 1 level is the free quota in private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. "On this school campus, an anganwadi is functioning with a good number of children. Three anganwadi children joined a private school through the RTE quota this year. If they had joined this school, things would be different," explained an officer.

Meanwhile, teachers of the school are now busy visiting neighbourhood areas to improve Class 1 admissions. "We are visiting the nooks and corners of every locality to ensure that no child is out of school. All these years, we were just teaching. But now we need to bring in the students first and later hold classes," said a primary school teacher from Vidyaranyapuram.

Mysuru North block education officer M R Shivaram conceded that schools are not getting an adequate number of students. "There are no zero-admission schools. But the number of students joining the government school are in single digits. Only Urdu medium schools are getting more students," he said.

"People contact us for seats in private schools. But they are not ready to send their kids to government schools. The RTE quota is eating into our admissions," he said.