The Congress has flayed the decision of the State Government to shut 966 schools in the State. Congress Media Cell chairman Satya Prakash Nayak in a Press meet here on Thursday alleged that the State Government is acting as an agent for the private schools.
He said while the standard of education in the Government schools has been deteriorating in the last 20 years for which the parents are preferring the private schools by spending lakhs of rupees, instead of improving the standard of the schools by providing basic facilities like computer education, lab, play ground, etc, the Government has decided to shut the schools on the count of low student strength.
Nayak alleged that the continuous negligence for the Government schools smacks of the Government’s nexus with the private schools.
He said that there are about 69, 287 primary and upper primary schools in Odisha catering to the need of 85 per cent of the students. But 40,558 schools have no electricity while 40, 628 schools are bereft of a playground.
He condemned the decision to close down the schools located in far flung and tribal areas even as the School and Mass Education Minister claims that about 20 per cent of the GDP should be spent for education.