Punjab Government on Tuesday made it clear that it would not merge or close down any school having more than 20 students.
Clarifying this, State Education Minister Aruna Chaudhary said the Government fully supported the schools, facing merger, which are chalking out program and initiating steps to enrol more and more students.
“Schools which would have more than 20 students would not be merged, and the Education Department is with them…But, we have to close and merge schools where students are less than 20 because at many places, the teachers are getting salary but they have no students to teach,” she added.
The State Government has decided to merge or close down 800 primary government schools, with less than 20 students, across the state with other nearby schools.
Justifying the move, the government argued that the process would enable shifting of teachers and other staff, posted in these schools, to other schools providing financial relief to the education department coupled with filling of vacancies.
As per the data available, there are 57 schools with less than five students, against 75 teachers.
Also, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had only recently refused to intervene in the matter.
A senior education department official said that with the merger process, there would be no violation of Right to Education (RTE) Act.
“No child will be forced to travel more than one km. Where distance is more than one km, the school will continue as before,” said the official.
At the same time, Chaudhary made it clear that the state aganwadi workers need not to be afraid with the start of pre-primary classes in the state. “The job of 26,000 anganwadi workers is not under threat. Their job is secure and their services would be utilised to the maximum extent to keep the project going,” she assured.
Chaudhary said that the anganwadi workers would also be part of the new pre-primary classes project.