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In 5 years, 10 lakh students moved out of govt schools-Abhishek Choudhari
-The Times of India

NAGPUR: The state education department has moved into an aggressive mode on learning that 10 lakh students have ditched government schools (zilla parishad and corporation) and shifted to private institutions in the last five years. The revelation came from Sanjay Deshmukh, director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) and the man leading RTE implementation in Maharashtra.

"Five years ago we had about 78 lakh students, now the figure has dipped to 68 lakh," he said last week at an RTE convention in the city. "While the students are leaving government schools they are not necessarily moving away the state board. They are going to government-aided private schools and are also following the state's educational pattern."

The shifting of students is one of the major reasons for the state being burdened with 40,000 empty classrooms. Yet, sources in the education department have confirmed that they have no choice but to construct another 68,000 classrooms in the next seven months to meet Right To Education (RTE) norms. The census data showed that there are 47 schools with only one student each. About 596 schools have less than 10 students while 1,431 have between 11-20 pupils.

At an RTE convention held in the city on Friday, additional chief secretary in charge of school education, JS Saharia reminded those working at the ground level that it was time to buckle up. "Something is wrong if every year two lakh students are moving out of our schools. Visit schools and check discrepancies. Take action against schools which register less than 50% attendance," he said.

The increase in number of CBSE schools in the city is a pointer that many students many have shifted to a different pattern of learning. Neeru Kapai, founder-principal of Modern School(Koradi Road), said, "Three years ago there were about 30 schools under the umbrella association of Nagpur Sahadoya Schools Complex. Today it is 83 and there more schools are in the pipeline. While I don't have the exact figure of the total number of CBSE students, the increase in schools pretty much tells the story."

She attributed the shift to CBSE to a combination of different reasons. "The curriculum is more stable, it is a trend which many are following, overall development of the child while still keeping academic records intact and preference of English language as the medium of study are the main reasons," said Kapai.

Rachna Singh, the principal of the private but state-funded St Ursula Girls School, feels that teachers in state schools will have to take part of the blame for the shift. "Teachers are burdened with election and census duties giving them very little time to concentrate on teaching. At corporation schools, the civic body piles up unrelated work on them and the environment is not right to teach," she said.

But she added that private schools are better equipped with training facilities and their result-oriented approach increases accountability.

A UNICEF study on the quality of education in Nagpur revealed that the dropout rate, another reason for classrooms going empty, is higher than the state average. The worst performers in Nagpur division are Sakoli, Bhiwapur and Parseoni with a dropout rate of over 5%, while the state's average is under 3%.

At the RTE convention, Saharia came down scathing on his junior colleagues. "There is no way to shift the physical infrastructure to any place where it is needed which means you will have to be more diligent at the ground level. The quality of education imparted at our schools needs to be raised drastically, only then can student enrolment increase."

As a first step towards it, changes have been made to the RTE Act to bring minority unaided schools under its ambit as well. Speaking to TOI, Deshmukh said, "We will be issuing a notification soon on the changes. The only school which will be out of RTE ambit now are Vedic pathshalas, madrasas and institutes that primarily impart religious education."