In a recent analysis conducted by the UNICEF it was found that Madhya Pradesh has seen a decline in enrolment of about 4.7 lakh students in 2013-14 in primary and upper primary classes compared to 2012-2013. The analysis is of 1,42,844 schools in the state with 1,14,444 government schools.
The highest drop has come in Gwalior which has the difference in enrolment of 40,000 students, who are now out of schools. Chambal has seen decline in enrolment of students with a difference of more than 52,000 primary students. Jabalpur has seen a decline of 18,229.
On the other hand, there has been healthy change in primary enrolment in Indore of 15,365. The tribal dominated Jahbua district takes the cake in upper primary enrolment with 8,747 students enrolling.
The national average of transition rate from upper primary to secondary classes is 92%. Madhya Pradesh’s status is dismal with only 82% students making to class 9.
UNICEF MP chief Trevor Clark, while addressing a session on the Right to Education (RTE) Act completing five years, said, “Instead of an RTE kind of framework, let us have a ‘right to learn’ kind of approach for kids.” Gwalior has the lowest transition rate among 50 districts while other tribal districts have transition rates close to 100. 14 districts in north and central Madhya Pradesh had less than 80% transition rate.
Decline of students poses another issue in front of us- the shortage of teachers. The number of schools with just one teacher is quite high. Alarmingly, there are 4,662 government schools without any teachers at all. Singrauli district has 357 schools without any teachers
[“source-indiatoday.intoday.in”]
