Even English-medium govt schools losing out to private institutions

Guwahati: Contrary to popular conjecture that most students nowadays prefer English-medium private schools over government-run vernacular institutions primarily because of the medium of instruction, 15 government-run schools in Dima Hasao district of Assam have been ‘closed down’ due to poor enrolment. The fate of these 15 schools, as has been revealed by a series of RTI replies, hints at a deeper malaise — most parents have lost faith in government schools and would prefer to send their children to private institutions.
RTI activist Okram Prasanta Singha said, “The matter came to light recently after I filed RTI applications seeking information from the education authorities. The replies stated that 15 English-medium government-run schools in the Dima Hasao district of Assam have been closed down in last few years after the state government initiated the process of merging institutions that have low student strength.”
He added, “Ministers often say that students are leaving government-run schools for private institutions mainly because the medium of instruction in the latter is English. But the RTI replies show that this is not true. We now have reason to believe that parents and students are losing faith in government-run schools.”
The process of merging schools with low student strength has been fraught with controversies in the state. Many public organizations have opposed the move while the state government has defended it, arguing that this will help in better management of schools which have low student strength and are located within a radius of 1 km.
Apart from the 15 English-medium schools, 14 Bengali-medium government-run institutions have also been merged with others in Dima Hasao district.
Referring to an RTI reply from the office of the block elementary education officer at Titabor in Jorhat district, Singha said that 37 lower primary and 25 upper primary vernacular-medium government-run schools were “closed down” following mergers in 2018. These mergers were brought about in accordance with the RTE Act, 2009.
Likewise, in upper Assam’s Lakhimpur district, four Assamese-medium and one Bengali-medium lower primary school have been merged with other institutions. A total of five Assamese-medium upper primary schools were merged with other institutions in due course of time.
The RTI activist further said in Barak Valley’s Cachar district, where a diverse medium of instructions are followed, over 150 schools were “closed down” due to mergers in 2017 and 2018. “Cachar has been a unique case. Teachers, who can not speak in Manipuri, have been employed in Manipuri-medium schools after the mergers. If teachers are not well-versed in the language, how can we expect the merger of institutions to bring about a positive change? What’s the point of effecting these mergers then? Being a welfare state, we should have schools in locations where are less than 10 students. After all, they have the right to education,” Singha added.
Commissioner and secretary to the state education department, Preetom Saikia, however said that the merger process was initiated to ensure that students enjoy better resources. “The decision to merge English-medium government schools will be reviewed by taking into consideration the grounds on which the 15 schools in Dima Hasao were merged. The interest of the students who prefer to study in English-medium institutions should not be harmed,” he said.