Dropouts in Govt schools alarming
Over 7 lakh dropouts in Govt schools every year: Half of the children who join school in Class I drop out by the time they reach Class X. The free mid-day meal scheme, the Right to Education Act, and trained teachers in government schools, do not seem to stem the tide of drop outs.
Parents are keen about their kids getting educated at an English medium school, and do not seem to mind paying hefty fees to Private schools.
The parents ignore the qualified and trained teachers in Government schools. The number of teachers in Government schools is increasing, but the proportion of students is going down drastically.
The statistics prepared by the Education Department on the government schools is alarming.
The Govt schemes which produce no results
The government schemes do not seem to attract the students to join government schools. The government had spent 25 crores on schemes like DPP, and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, but education in the government schools is still on the down side. Free books, Free uniforms, and free mid-day meals has had no effect on the number of students joining. It is two years since the Central government enforced the Compulsory Education Act with a budget of 4,500 crores, and had allotted 2000 crores for Rashtrya Madhyamika Siksha Abhiyan. The idea was to improve the infrastructural facilities and the teaching standards in government schools. But these measures do not seem to have brought in the desired results.
The Education Dept is troubled over the lack of interest among students to join government schools: The admissions in government schools have drastically come down. Those who join, drop out without completing Class X. The statistics reveal that about one lakh students have dropped out from government schools. Some of them join private schools while the others do not go to school at all.
It is interesting to compare the admissions in Govt schools with those in Private schools
1. In 2002 about 19,35,871 students joined government schools, but by 2012 their number in Class X came down to 10,51,051 which indicates that about
45.71 % dropped out.
2. In private schools, the students admitted in the year 2009-10 were 51,16,222 but increased to 52,64,157 by 20010-2011, which means an increase of 1,47,935.
3. By 2011-2012 the number of students admitted in private schools were 54,10,872, showing an increase of 1,46,715.
The reasons for drop outs
Parents are enamoured by the English language and there is no English medium in many government schools
• The parents do not wait till their children are five years old but admit them in nursery classes when they are three years old. There are no pre-primary classes in government schools
• Private schools follow a regular academic schedule, whereas the government schools function/not function during the academic year due to various reasons
• In the rural areas the teachers do not attend to their duties regularly. The other reasons which aggravate the problem are long leaves by teachers, alternative arrangements not being made when they are transferred, no proper supervision by the authorities, and lack of facilities in the school
Mahbubnagar
The Mahbubnagar has the lowest number of students in government schools. About 63.58 percent of students stop school in the middle of the year. In 2002, there were 1,31,275 students who joined Class I, but by the time they reached Class X there remained only 47,812 students.
Chittoor district
In Chittoor district the dropout rate is just 27.29%. Most of the children are from primary and upper primary schools. The Director of School Education Usha Rani has instructed all the DEOs and Project Directors to take special to ensure students continue till they finish Class X. It is significant to note that the percentage of school dropouts among girls is 45.99 where as it is 45.43 among boys
-Sakshipost