Govt merges 190 schools over zero enrolment and poor infra

The government has merged at least 190 primary and upper primary schools across the state that have been running with zero enrolment and poor infrastructures, officials familiar with the matter said.

- HT Correspondent

JAIPUR:

Declaring the move, education minister Madan Dilawar wrote on X, "Today (Monday), 190 primary and upper primary schools have been merged in the state. This step is an important initiative towards strengthening the educational system. I believe that this merging will boost the development of the educational quality and the students."

On Monday, the primary education directorate, Bikaner, issued two orders in which they identified 169 schools to be merged for zero enrolment rate while 21 schools were identified in the second order with poor infrastructure.

"We have identified 169 primary and upper primary schools which did not have any enrolment as they were located so close to another primary or upper primary school in the same village. Due to the low enrolment rate, a sufficient number of teachers could also not be fetched despite sanctioning the capacity as per the Right To Education (RTE) parameters. It has an adverse effect on the education quality in the state," read the first order issued by the department.

It further read: "Considering the situation, the Primary Education Directorate conducted a survey and decided to merge them with the ones running with better enrolment and staff size in the same area."

According to this order, 18 schools will be merged in Jaipur due to zero enrolment followed by 17 in Jodhpur, 11 in Didwana-Kuchaman, 10 in Karauli, and seven each in Nagaur and Kotputli-Behror.

The second order read, "At least 21 primary and upper primary schools were identified which have been running in the same building following which they failed to fetch a sufficient enrolment. Therefore, the government have decided to merge those school running in the same building in order to provide the students with a better education quality."