Govt decides to merge 720 schools from Jmu, Kashmir
In order to strike a balance between the ratio of teachers and students, the school education department has identified 720 schools for the merger in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Education Department had initiated a study to this effect on the directions of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha because of reports that in certain schools’ number of teachers was much higher as compared to students.
LG Sinha last year was in favour of merger of at least 2000 schools following which the Jammu and Kashmir government had sought details of schools with low enrolment to ‘vacate such premises in order to merge the schools’ to streamline the Teacher Pupil Ratio (TPR).
“At least 720 schools from both Jammu and Kashmir region will be merged soon. The orders would be issued shortly,” the officials said.
They said that the government in a communiqué issued to Director of School Education of Kashmir and Jammu and Project Director, Samagra Shiksha in December-2021 had asked them to provide details of government-run-schools with low enrolment.
Stating the criteria, the officials said that the details regarding low enrolment shall be submitted of all government primary schools with enrolment less than 10 students.
“All government and upper primary and middle schools with enrolment less than 30 students and all the government high schools with enrolment less than 70 enrolments will be merged,” they said.
Worth to mention, the UT Administration have already merged many schools being run under Smagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Still, there are certain educational institutions having eight students and four teachers while others have 70 students and four teachers. There were certain schools where 20 to 25 teachers have been posted for 100-odd students, while in other educational institutions, there were three to four teachers for an almost equal number of students. However, as per the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, the Teacher-Student ratio must be 1:35 which means one teacher for 35 students.
Meanwhile, on the direction of the higher authorities, the panel of three teachers in each school of JK UT has been out for a survey to identify OOSC under ‘Talash Project’.
The step in this connection was taken to ascertain the circumstances which caused droop out. Under the Talash Project, the teachers’ panel in every school would make visit at least one hundred and fifty households nearby their schools to identify the Out of School Children (OOSC) and motivate them to move back to school.
