| 10 distts lack quality infrastructure, education; poor educational indicators compound problem | | School education in disarray in J&K! | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
Early Times Report
Jammu, July 8: Government schools in 10 districts of Jammu and Kashmir neither have quality infrastructure nor education.
The schools in these districts have been bracketed as ones with poor educational indicators by Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. They have graded these schools as ones with poor educational standards. The districts with poor educational indicators include Kulgam, Anantnag, Badgam, Ganderbal, Baramulla, Doda, Ramban, Rajouri, Ganderbal and Reasi.
According to a report of the Union Human Resource Development ministry, schools in these 10 districts are unable to provide quality education. These schools lack requisite infrastructure and have extremely bad pupil-teacher ratio. The report maintains that despite continuous efforts of the state as well as central government, students in the schools in these districts have been unable to learn basics in most of the subjects. They are weak in mathematics and science.
They are unable to do simple mathematical calculations besides their power to identify simple scientific instruments is very weak. The report further says that there is huge difference in the general enrolment ratio (GER) at the upper primary and secondary level. It maintains that GER at the upper Primary level is 96.7 percent, whereas GER at the secondary level is 63.45 percent.
Referring to the high drop-out rate, the report asserts that the dropout rate at state level is 25.33 percent which is very high. Out of 22 districts in J&K, the dropout rate in these 10 districts is higher than the state level dropout rate. According to the report, the districts which have very high drop-out rate include Kulgam 41.62 percent, Anantnag 41.33 percent, Badgam 40.90 percent, Ganderbal 38.51 percent and Baramulla 37.09 percent.
Besides, the general enrolment ratio (GER) has decreased from 65.10 percent (SSE) in the year 2010-11 to 63.45 percent in 2013-14. Reports has stated that this is not only worrying but speaks in volumes about how ineffective the state machinery has been in arresting the trend of increase in the drop-out rate. It has also criticised the state government for not furnishing the National Enrolment Register (NER) data for the year 2011-12.
The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) at state level is 0.88 in the year 2013-14, which has decreased from 0.91 in 2012-13. The districts having low GPI viz. Doda 0.71, Badgam 0.81, Ramban 0.83, Rajouri, Ganderbal and Anantnag 0.84 each need special attention. The district having high PTR viz. Ramban 58 and Reasi 43 need special attention and intervention.
Not only this, out of approved 526 new secondary schools and approved 306 schools under strengthening head in the previous years, 64 cases in new schools and 6 cases in strengthening head are having issues with the availability of land. 17.5 percent (92) of the new school buildings sanctioned (526) till date have been completed by the state so far. (2009-10 -42.02 percent; 2010-11- 23.62 percent & 2011-12-7.27 percent).
Under strengthening head, out of approved 306, the state has taken up only 315 works sanctioned so far out of which 133 works have been completed and 182 are in progress. 7 percent of the works are completed whereas 10 percent of the works are in progress. |
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