Zilla Parishad probe finds quality eroding in its schools

In 53 ZP schools,the decline was quite steep. Enrollment in 70 schools had come down substantially in the last five years from 11,313 in 2008 to 9,387 in 2012.

In February,The Indian Express had reported that over 3,000 ZP schools in the district had lost around 10,000 students to private Marathi medium and English medium schools. While the number of schools had gone up from 3,613 in 2010-11 to 3,725 in 2011-12,students had come down from 2.66 lakh to 2.56 lakh.

While parents and experts blamed poor quality of education in ZP-run schools,the ZP education officer had cited a “fall in birth rate in recent years” as reason. Following the report,the ZP CEO had directed the primary education department to survey and find the reasons for the decline.

“We carried out the study in all the 13 talukas in the district. It was observed that ZP schools are losing students to private Marathi medium schools and English medium schools,major reasons being poor management of ZP schools by the management committees,poor quality of teaching in ZP schools and increasing popularity of English medium schools among parents,” said Panduran Memane,extension officer,the primary education department who conducted the study.

Anil Kawade,CEO,Pune ZP said that based on findings of the study,the ZP has planned several initiatives to win back the confidence of parents. “To compete with the English medium schools we will soon launch semi-English courses in 100 primary schools. We have also started e-learning projects in 75 schools. There’s a plan to extend the current Activity Based Learning project to 400 schools,” said Kawade.