THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The number of uneconomic schools - both government and aided - in the state has risen by 523 to touch 5,137 in 2012-13 academic year, according to statistics accessed through the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
According to a circular of the Department of General Education in 2012, schools from lower primary to high school-level which have less than 60 students (average of 15 students in a class) are termed uneconomic.
In 2011-12, the number of uneconomic schools in the state was 4,614.
According to the RTI information gathered by an NGO All-India Save Education Committee, there are currently 2,577 schools in the state that have less than 50 students on their rolls.
Out of these 1,217 are government schools and 1,360 are aided schools. Interestingly, there are seven Lower Primary Schools in the state which do not have even a single student.
While four schools have one student each on their rolls, the number of schools having less than 10 students is 109.
The largest number of uneconomic schools are in Kannur (731), followed by Pathanamthitta (502) and Kozhikode (499).
“The main reason for these schools becoming uneconomic is owing to the parents’ preference to admit their children in CBSE or ICSE schools.
Even though the inadequacies in the curriculum and the examination system have been pointed out to the government, no measures have been taken to rectify them,” All-India Save Education Committee convenor M Shajarkhan said.