It’s startling but true. In a State with 82.8 per cent literacy, 20 per cent of Class III students in Himachal Pradesh’s Government schools cannot identify alphabets or numbers. Moreover, 74 per cent of eighth standard students don’t have class-appropriate competence, says a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). Additionally, 31 per cent of schools in the State, catering to 118,036 students, are running from either one or two-room structures.
The survey was conducted by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a countrywide programme of the Central Government to attain universal elementary education, to assess learning achievements and progress of students. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said the issue of students’ level of learning has come to the fore in various Government reports and surveys. “It’s a serious issue. Now the teachers have been made accountable to ensure that each child acquires these competencies. The teacher has to provide remedial teaching to the students who are lacking in learning,” he told IANS.
So how has this dicothomy come aboutIJ A senior official in the State education department said after the introduction of the comprehensive and continuous evaluation system, there is noticeable decline in the standards of education at the primary and elementary levels, adding that there is need to amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009.
“Only those students should be promoted from Class 8 who have attained certain quantum of knowledge. There should be reintroduction of fail or pass system and not giving compulsory promotion to every student till the age of 14. This affects the quality of attaining education by students, who scored low grades, in higher classes,” the official, who wished not to be named, told IANS. The saving grace for the State, though, is that 97 per cent of Government schools have a separate toilet for girls, 98 per cent schools have a library and 84 per cent have a playground.
The CAG also pointed out inadequate school infrastructure in Government schools. It said 577 (four per cent) out of 15,162 schools with an enrollment of 17,824 students were running from a single classroom. Similarly, 4,075 (27 per cent) schools with a student strength of 100,208 were running from two rooms.
Poor infrastructure in Government schools, said the CAG, is the main reason for the students opting for private schools. It said the enrollment of students in Government primary and upper primary schools had decreased by 18 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively, in 2009-14. At the same time, it had increased by 32 per cent in private and private-aided schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas.
The CAG report points out that of the 508,944 students of classes 2-8 surveyed, 16,823 (3.30 per cent), 13,785 (2.70 per cent), 16,555 (3.30 per cent) and 12,066 (2.40 per cent) scored 0/100 in English, Hindi, mathematics and science, respectively. Also, that 50 per cent of the students who entered Class 2 did not acquire class-level competence. The Government auditor, in the report tabled in the assembly last week, cited non-availability of teachers as one of the reasons for deteriorating standard of education in the State. An audit review of student-teacher ratio for five years from 2009 revealed that the number of primary schools with less than two teachers ranged between 877 and 1,252.
likewise, the upper primary schools with one teacher ranged between 50 and 113 and with less than three teachers ranged between 193 and 363 at the State level. The hill State had 15,162 schools till March 2014. These included 10,650 primary and 4,512 upper primary schools.