J&K Chief Secretary calls for Panchayat-level monitoring of primary schools to tackle students’ dropout

Mehta on Monday chaired a meeting to review the implementation of the centrally sponsored scheme Samagra Shiksha in Jammu and Kashmir.

Officials informed the CS that although educational indicators in J&K have shown improvement over the past two years, there is still considerable ground to cover to reach the national benchmarks.

Giving details, they informed that the gross enrolment ratio in the primary and upper primary levels have increased from 79.93 and 68.06 in the year 2019-20 to 93.16 and 72.77 respectively in the year 2020-21.

The chief secretary advised the department to rope in Panchayats in the monitoring of the primary schools and institute as a mechanism of obtaining monthly reports on the performance of schools, besides seeking feedback from the students about their experiences in class.

Reviewing the educational indicators in J&K, the CS said, “Every fifth student seems to be dropping out at the time of moving from primary to upper primary school. This calls for a concerted action from the department to arrest this trend.”

Mehta directed the department to prepare a framework for assessing the competency of the teachers based on the achievement of learning outcomes by the students during the year so that capacity building of teachers, wherever necessary, is also made a part of overall focussed policy action in the education sector.

While directing the department to take steps to increase the enrolment ratio in the schools, he advised the department that an increase in the dropout ratio beyond an acceptable level in given schools should be made an area of responsibility of the teachers in that school and their accountability fixed.