Failed SSA test,state now prepares for RTE exam

“We had plans to set up about 5,500 upper primary schools,but so far we have come up with about 2,000 schools,” said state School Education Minister Partha De.

In West Bengal,about seven lakh students are out of schools or were never enrolled. Experts,meanwhile,claim that maximum dropout cases are recorded during the transition phase of a student from a primary school (Class I to IV) to an upper primary school (Class I to VIII). Interestingly,in West Bengal,the ratio of primary schools to upper primary schools is about 5.5:1,compared to the national ratio of 3:1.

The school education department has,meanwhile,done a school mapping in the state and identified places where new schools would be set up to maintain the right balance between upper primary schools and primary schools. Also on the agenda of the education department is minimising the distance that children have to cover to reach these upper primary schools.

The political turmoil in Darjeeling and East Midnapore has completely halted the process of setting up these schools and as per government records,not a single upper primary school has been constructed in these districts.