SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Aug 31: The Jharkhand government and the School Education and Literacy department are set to organise door-to-door surveys in districts with comparatively lesser admissions and students in schools to understand the reasons for decreased admissions and to make sure that no children are out of school in these areas.
Notably, recent review meetings of the department have raised several issues. These include the decreased admissions in around 4872 schools apart from which, 2863 schools have less than 25 children while a dozen schools have not admitted students in the past two years due to a lack of teachers.
Talking in this regard, Department of School Education and Literacy Secretary Rajesh Sharma has said, “We are planning door-to-door surveys to make sure that there are no children out of schools. We want to make sure that the areas which have decreased admissions have children studying in other schools rather than being out of school.”
“If the children are going to private schools, then it is not our concern because they ultimately are going to school. We want to make sure that these children are not out of schools and made to work or kept busy with other things in areas where admissions and number of children in a school are affected,” the secretary added.
Earlier, in a review meeting, secretary Sharma had asked for a report from regions that have a decreased number of admissions. These include 331 in East Singhbhum, 323 in Dhanbad, 382 in Dumka, 349 in West Singhbhum and 325 in Giridih.
Apart from this, it was also pointed out that 350 schools in Ranchi, 250 in Gumla, 200 in East Singhbhum and 200 in Dumka along with several others in West Singhbhum, Khunti, Sahibganj, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad and Bokaro have less than 25 students in all.
It was also pointed out that in around a dozen schools including Sanskrit Vidyalay in Deoghar; and other schools in Pakur, Gumla, West Singhbhum, Koderma and Godda have not had a single admission for the past two years due to a lack or shortage of teachers.
Over this, the secretary has instructed to make sure that if teachers can be hired on contracts from nearby areas, they be hired. If not, the school administration may even file a request in the primary education committee to shut down said schools.
