Bathinda, October 10
The Punjab Government has taken steps to close down those government schools where the number of students on rolls is less than 50 or 50, under its educational restructuring programme launched about a month ago.
To accomplish the task at the earliest, the state education authorities have started collecting data on schools of all categories where the student strength is less than 50 or 50 from all districts. Apart from student strength, data on the number of teachers posted in such schools was also being collected.
The government has also initiated steps to bring a legislation to put a check on the mushrooming of educational shops in the rural and the urban areas. By bringing in legislation, the Punjab Government will lay down norms for all private schools, which would be mandatory for them to function smoothly. The legislation would be on the pattern which has already been introduced in Haryana.
Official sources said a committee comprising ministers and senior bureaucrats and headed by the Deputy Chief Minister, Mrs Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, had been constituted by the government about two weeks ago to work out a strategy to restructure the elementary and secondary educational set up in the state.
The sources added that after carrying out this exercise, the government would come to know the exact number of teachers working in its schools and the exact number of students to whom they were imparting education. After the exercise was over, the data would be compiled and then the government would go for recruitment of teachers in large numbers to fill the vacancies in all schools being run by it.
The sources said the Punjab Government had been planning to close down one of the two schools which were located within an area of 1 km from each other in the rural and the urban
areas. The Punjab Government could also merge two schools of the same category, which were located close to each other. This would be done for optimal utilisation of resources as teachers in these schools had less workload as compared to their counterparts in other government schools having a considerable strength.
The state education authorities had come to know that some schools in the elementary and the secondary categories had been working despite the fact that the student strength in these schools had not crossed double figure any time. These schools had been allowed to function only to adjust those teachers who used to take posting of their choice.
Though no time period had been fixed for the high-level committee to give its report, it was being expected in the Education Department that the rationalisation process would start within a month or so.
It is learnt that there were a large number of schools in the state where the student strength was less than 50 or 50. On the other hand, the strength of teachers in these schools was significant. Due to this trend, in a number of schools, where the student strength was adequate, the strength of teachers was not adequate.
The sources said the district education authorities (Elementary and Secondary) had started sending information regarding those schools having a student strength of less than 50 to the higher education authorities of the state.
