Despite crores of rupees being spent under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a declining trend in the number of students in Government-run primary and upper primary schools in the State has been persisting over last couple of years.
While the number of primary school students stood at 51,79,627 in the year 2011-12, it declined to 49, 24,453 in 2013-14.
Concerned over the decline in students’ enrolment by around 2.5 lakh, the Government had asked the ICRA to conduct a study to find reasons behind this trend.
Notably, the tendency of parents to admit their kids in English medium schools has been increasing both in rural and urban areas.
Taking advantage of the public demand, private investors are opening such schools in towns as well as in villages. In the name of imparting world class education, the English medium schools have been exploiting parents by taking huge donations and tuition fees.
Even parents are opting to put their kids in Odia medium private schools like Saraswati Shishu Mandir and Shri Aurobindo Purnanga Shiksha Kendra.
What is more worrying is that students’ enrollment is on a decline trend despite introduction of Mid Day Meal (MDM) and other facilities provided under various Government schemes.
Shortage of teachers at lP and UP schools is considered one of the major reasons that parents are not opting to send their children to these schools.
Teaching is also being affected in these schools as teachers are most of the time engaged in non-teaching fields like Census, Voters’ list correction, BPl list preparation and many awareness programmes.
Besides, lack of infrastructure and environment in the Government schools is another factor behind the problem.
On the other hand, private schools meet all these needs of students. They even provide study materials and books well before schools reopens.
The another reason is that many kids in mining areas are leaving schools midway as their parents go to distant places for work due to closure of mines.