KOZHIKODE: Kerala has 149 schools with fewer than 10 students. Four others have none, despite the education department’s ambitious public education rejuvenation programme.
Of the 149 schools, 109 are aided while 40 are government schools, as per the data presented by General Education Minister V Sivankutty in the assembly.
The number of schools with zero student strength has also gone up from one to four, while two schools have one student each in this academic year.
Enrolments in class 1 and class 5 dropped too. Fresh admissions to class 1 in government and aided schools fell by 37,522 – 15,380 in government schools and 22,142 in aided schools – than previous year.
Government schools also saw a drop of 7,134 students in Class 5 enrolments than last year. However, aided schools fared better, seeing 39,679 fresh admissions to class 5 this year.
A teacher of an aided school in Kannur that has no students alleged the management was not interested in running the school.
“Three students got admitted to Class 1 this year. Two of them got admitted to a nearby school later citing poor facilities here. The lone remaining student also left as no one wants to study in a single-student school,” said the teacher.
“For the past four years, I have been maintaining the facilities here using money from my own pocket. Now, I totally disappointed with the management’s disinterest in running the school. So, I applied for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS),” said the teacher.
Director of Public Instruction Jeevan Babu told TNIE that there are several reasons for the shortage of students.
“There is a dip in the total number enrolments in class 1 across the state. This may have affected these schools. However, this does not mean the state’s public education rejuvenation mission is a failure. The programme successfully attracted a massive number of students to government and aided schools in many parts of the state,” he said.
“In some cases, the management’s disinterest in running the institution is a major issue for low student strength. If the management shows interest, most of the issues can be resolved. However, closing down schools due to shortage of students is not the government’s policy,” he said.
Sorry state
Several government, aided schools facing severe student shortage.
109 aided schools and 40 have less than 10 students.
Four have zero students, while two have one student each.
Class 1 admissions dropped by 37,522 (15,380 in government schools, 22,142 in aided).
Class 5 enrolments in government schools dropped by 7,134 students.
Aided schools saw 39,679 more admissions to class 5.
