AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government on Tuesday said in the Assembly that as of December 31, 2023, there were 341 government primary schools in the state that operate from a single room. That’s even though the state government announced a provision of Rs 43,651 crore for the education department in 2023-24.
The government response came to a question in the Assembly from Congress MLA from Patan Kirit Patel. He asked the state Education Minister as to how many government primary schools in Gujarat have only one classroom.
The government said the poor state of the schools was owing to the fact the number of children and teachers was low, besides some rooms were abandoned due to dilapidation. The government also said that enough land was not available with these schools for expansion. The government also acknowledged that not enough teachers were recruited to fill vacancies.
In response to another query posed by the Congress MLA on Tuesday, the government said as of December 31, 2023, there are 439 vacant posts in Gujarat Education Service class-1 and 1,020 vacancies in class-II.
State Congress spokesperson Hiren Banker slammed the government, saying the numbers indicated that the government preferred privatizing education to benefit businessmen. “On the one hand, the government claims there are no teachers, so they must teach in a single room. On the other, the vacancies approved by the government are not filled.
“As per records, more than 19,000 vacancies of teachers are vacant in Gujarat,” said the Congress leader.
On February 12, the state government informed the House that 1,606 of the state’s 32,000 government primary schools operated with only one teacher for all students of Classes 1 to 8.