Minister of State for School and Mass Education Rabinarayan Nanda on Thursday said 4,570 villages in the State do not have primary schools within one kilometre radius.
Replying to a question of Santosh Singh Saluja (Cong) in the Assembly, the Minister said 84,813 schools in the State have primary schools within one kilometre radius. As per present guidelines, primary schools can be opened in 1,217 out of 4,570 villages and the State Government will soon submit a proposal to the Centre in this regard, he added.
Nanda said as per the Right to Education Act, schools can be opened in each village having 25 students in KBK and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) areas. In non-KBK and non-TSP villages, schools can be opened in each village having at least 40 students.
Replying to a question from Anup Kumar Sai (Cong), Nanda said 20,279 students dropped out of schools in the primary level during the year.
Answering to a question by Naba Kishore Das (Cong), Minister of State for Higher Education Badrinarayan Patro said 296 posts of lecturer are vacant in different universities of the State. The number of vacancies in the post of lecturers was 232 in 2000-01 and 274 in 2004-05, he said.