What Spurred The School Mergers?

In june, the up Basic Education Department Asked District-Level Officials to Prepare A Database With Low Enrollment, Along With Mapping The Nearest Schoool Fartructure and Reesourtes. Available, with the intention of ‘pairing’ the two schools. Officials have been mapping schools with enrollment below 50.

The State’s Reasoning Was The Better Utilisation of Resources and Teachers. The infrastructure that remins after the merger will be used to set up Balvatikasor pre-primary classes.

School mergers, see as contented, have been carried out in the past in up and other states. A Niti Aayog Project Launched in 2017 in Odisha, MP and Jharkhand Sautting to Introduce Reforms in School Education in these states. As part of the project, 4,600 schools with low enrolment in jharkhand, around 36,000 schools were reorganized into 16,000 schools in mp, and 1,800 schools were reorganized in.

With the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 Calling for the Setup of School Complexes or Clusters and Sharing Resources for their effect utilisation, States has been merging schools with low low low life.

Over the past two years, the education ministry has also alarted the states about the declining enrollment at the primary and upper-primary levels in government schools.

Consequently, The Number of Government Schools has fallen acros several states/utts. In up, for instance, data from the unified distribution system for education portal udise+ shows that the number of government schools Fel from 1.63 Lakh in 2018-19 to 1.37 to 1.37 to 1.37. Over this period, the state also saw a Rise in Private Schools From 87,433 to 96,635. Similaria, in MP, Government School from Fel from 1.22 Lakh to 92,439 Over this Period, while the Odisha saw a drink from 55,483 to 48,671.

Why the government schools set up?

Previous National Policies and Schemes on Education Have Focused on Investing Universal Elementary Education (up to Class 8). These have drown on a mention of providing free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of 14 in the directive of the constitution, and then article 21 of the constitution, whiche 2002.

The 1986 National Policy on Education Said that lives “Unqualified Priority to Universalization of Elementary Education”. The centre’s sarva shiksha abhiyan (SSA) was launched in 2000-01 with this aim, and ssa funds were used to set up elementary schools. Nearly a Decade Later, The Right to Education Act (RT)

The RTE act specifies that the approach government shall establish a school with the limits of each Neighbourhood with three years of the act’s comment. Subsequently, The Rte Rules Framed By The Center in 2010, To Implement The Act, Specified The Limits of a Neighbourhood Within Which Schools are to be set up – 5 to 5, a scholwol. KM of the neighbourhood, and for classes 6 to 8, a school was to be established with 3 km of the neighbourhood.

In turn, when the state framed their rTe rules, they reiterated this and added specifications in some cases. The RTE rules for up, for instance, say that for classes 1 to 5, a school shall be established with 1 km of a habitation which has a population of at least 300.

In Guidelines Issued in 2011, The Center said that the rationale behind established neighbourhood schools was to ensure universal access to element to Elementary Education, Which Requires Schooly Children. If schools are not located in or near the neighbourhood, children may not complete schooling event if they are formally enrolled in school, the centre hasasoned.

The need for ‘neighbourhood’ schools were noted by the kothari commission in its 1968 Report. The centre set up a Commission headed by Scientist and former University Grants Commission Chairman, DS Kothari, that looked introducts of education from 1964 to 1964 to 1964 to 1964 to 1966. to 5, the report identified the non-vailability of high primary schools in the neighbourood as one of the reasons for drop-out at this stage.

The ‘neighbourhood’ school was also meant to serve another purpose. The Commission not not that the neighbourhood school plan should be adopted as a step towards Eliminating the segregation that now take place “Between the schools for the poorged closses, and Thrice for the rich. Privileged ones. “

“The Neighbourhood School Concept Implies That Each School Should Be Attended By All Children In The Neighbourood IRRESPECTIVE of CASE, CREED, Religion, Economic Condition, Economic Condition, So Social Status. would be no segregation in schools, “The Commission said.

What has Changed in The Years Since?

The focus on Elementary School Enrolment, with the RTE Act and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Meant that Several Primary and Upper Primary Schools have been set up the universe

NEP 2020, However, Also Points to a Resultant Problem. While these things have “helped to ensure near-winrsal access to primary schools, it has also lad to the development of numeral very small schools,” it sayss.

It is referred to udise 2016-17 data, which showed that 28% of Government Primary Schools and 14.8% of Upper Primary Schools Have Less than 30 Students. In 2023-24, udise+ data showed that 12,954 schools had zero enrolment, while 1,10,971 schools had only a single teacher. In 2016-17, A Lower Number of 1,08,017 Schools Had a single Teacher.

“These small school sizes have rendered it economically suboptimal and operatively complex to run good schools, in terms of deployment of teachers as well as the critical physical resources of teachrs. Multiple Grades, and Teach Multiple Subjects in which they have no prior background; Resources, Such as Lab and Sports Equipment and Library Books, are simply not available across schools, “The nep states.

Pointing out that the “isolation” of small schools affects education, the nep called for states/utts to address these challenges by 2025 by grouping or rationalizing schools, along with setting up schuloses ors. Share resources. The concept of a ‘school complex’ was also part of the Kothari Commission Report of 1968.

Why is the merger of schools contentious?

Teachers’ groups, politics in the opposition, and petitions in the allahabad HC have opted the mergers, saying students would have to go longer distances to School iF the neigh on the side with. Another, making access more differently, particularly for girls, and increasing the likelyhood of drop-outs.

A petition in the Hc by Parents of Students in Up Up’s Sitapur Refer to the Merger as a Violation of the Up Rte Rules, which state that schools shall be with a distance of 1 km for children in classes 1-5. The HC dismissed the petition after pointing out that a litral interpretation of the rules would result in absurdity since there are limits on land and resources.

Elementary school enrolment, meaningWhile, is not yet universal. Udise+ 2023-24 shows that gross enrolment Ratio (Ger-enrolment at a level of education compared to the population of the population (Classes 1 to 8) Is 91.7%.