Schools won’t be shut, vacant ones to be converted into playschools: Minister counters Opp on merger policy
He said these would be developed on the pattern of private schools with separate curriculum for age group 3-4, 4-5 and 5-6, before students are admitted into proper primary school at the age of 6 as per the Right to Education policy.
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Minister informed that overall there are 1.48 crore students in Government Basic Education schools with 6.28 lakh teachers, Shiksha Mitras and instructors.
STATE BASIC Education Minister Sandeep Singh on Tuesday denied allegations levelled by the opposition, which questioned if schools were being closed down as part of the government’s school merger initiative.
While replying to a question on teacher-student ratio in Uttar Pradesh, Singh informed the House that the government is preparing to convert premises of schools that are being merged into playschools with the help of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) department.
He said these would be developed on the pattern of private schools with separate curriculum for age group 3-4, 4-5 and 5-6, before students are admitted into proper primary school at the age of 6 as per the Right to Education policy.
“Vacant school premises are being used in collaboration with the ICDS department to run pre-primary, playschool and nursery classes. Around 3,500 such schools have started functioning and 19,484 special educators have been appointed on contractual basis for these schools,” he said.
Seeking to clear the air regarding the school merger policy, the minister said, “While we already have student-teacher ratio as per the norms, we are trying to improve it further with the help of school merger. The government is only merging schools that have below 50 students and are within 1-km parameter (of the students’ homes) and commuting is easy for students.”
He added, “The merger process is being politicised by saying that the government is going to close the schools, while it is not true. Instead, 27 lakh new students have been enrolled this academic year, while during the rule of those raising the question, over 3 crore students were out of school.”
In its written reply, the government pointed out that there are around 79,000 vacant posts in primary schools and nearly 41,000 in Upper Primary Schools, with the minister citing the number of students enrolled, informed that the student:teacher ratio in the state is as per the set norms 30:1 and 35:1 for Primary and Upper Primary schools.
He informed the house that 1.04 crore children are enrolled in Primary schools of the state having 3.38 lakh teachers and about 1.43 lakh shiksha mitras. Minister claimed that this is within the norm of teacher ratio of 30:1 for primary schools and 35:1 for upper primary schools. He informed that the state’s Upper primary schools have 43,01,483 students and 1.2 lakh teachers along with 25,223 instructors.
Minister informed that overall there are 1.48 crore students in Government Basic Education schools with 6.28 lakh teachers, Shiksha Mitras and instructors.
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