VIJAYAWADA: The aim of the State government to increase student enrolment and control dropouts in government schools by implementing programmes like ‘Badi Bata’, ‘Badi Pilustondi’ and ‘Mana Vooru Mana Badi’ has failed to yield the desired results.
The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GRE) of students in primary schools declined to 83 per cent in 2016-17 compared to 91 per cent in 2010-11.However, in upper primary classes, the GRE increased to 81 per cent from 77 per cent in the corresponding period. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its observations, mentioned that the State government had failed to achieve 100 per cent enrolment of students in 2016-17 despite taking various measures for the same.
While the zero enrolment primary schools increased from 176 in 2015-16 to 438 in 2016-17, in respect of upper primary schools, the number of zero enrolment schools increased from 327 to 506 in the same period. Dropout rate stood at 9.7 per cent in respect of primary classes and 9.1 percent for upper primary schools in the 2016-17 academic year.It was also observed that there were 12,955 vacancies in teacher posts in the 2016-17 fiscal.
