After the Right to Education Act came to force in 2009, guidelines and rules were framed to ensure right to free and compulsory education in all schools in the country.
The Government has fixed parameters and facilities to be provided in schools like minimum area, classrooms, trained teachers, school boundary, ramps, toilets both for boys and girls, playground, kitchen sheds, drinking water facilities and free admission for weaker section etc which would make school eligible for obtaining NOC from the School and Mass Education (SME) Department.
While the authorities are strictly adhering to these parameters for private schools, more than 80 per cent of the Government schools do not have the requisite infrastructure or staff even after 8 years of the enforced RTE Act. According to the Government statistics, out of 69,226 schools in Odisha, 56,812 are Government schools. Out of these 42,184 schools have no electricity, 289 schools have no drinking water facility,42,060 schools have no playground,12,531 have no kitchen shed, 376 without any building,15,498 without boundary wall, 13,996 without ramp and most schools lack own land area required for a school. The free text books to be supplied to schools never reach the students in the beginning of the school session.
Although 63, 28,084 children are enrolled in the schools as per 2015-16 statistics, the Education Department has failed to practically monitor the students’ dropout rate in different schools. In tribal district like Keonjhar, it is found that the same students are enrolled in more than one school. The mid day meal quota, total enrollment drive and other sanctions based on the number of students admitted have encouraged the teachers to show maximum strength on school registers. The linking of students’ aadhar card is on and after it is completed, the actual number of students enrolled in different schools will be clear, a senior official in the department said.
The SME Department claims that 88 per cent of the students continue studies from the elementary to the secondary level in Keonjhar district while there is a transition of 95.4 per cent from elementary to secondary in the State. But according to surveys, dropout of students in the primary level is much more and hardly 50 per cent enrolled at the elementary level reach the high school. Even if enough funds are now available for promoting education in tribal districts in shape of the District Mineral Foundation Fund, backward dist development fund, tribal welfare funds through ITDA, DWO and Blocks, lack of concern has put education dragging behind in rural areas.