The State education department will provide cycles to around 20,000 students studying in government schools of Jharkhand who had to switch schools after school merger in 2018.
Till date, there has been a provision of providing bicycles only to students of class eight and above, however, this is for the first time that the students of class six and seven will also be given the cycles.
The Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC) had directed the district superintendents of education (DSEs) to provide a list of all those students who had to change schools after their school was merged into neighbouring schools in 2018.
Following the direction, a list of 19,967 students has been provided to JEPC for availing the benefit. Among these, 10,186 students are of class six while 9,781 are from class seven who enrolled in different schools after the merger.
The highest number of students, 2995, is from West Singhbhum followed by 2209 students of East Singhbhum, who would be benefitted under the scheme. In Ranchi, only 438 students had to be shifted after school merger.
Project director of JEPC Uma Shankar Singh said, “These selected students will be sent Rs. 3500 each in their bank account through direct benefit transfer (DBT) so that they can buy cycles for themselves.”
In 2018, around 4600 odd middle schools were merged with other schools due to various reasons like low enrollment ratio, shortage of teachers and poor quality of education. As a result, around 20,000 children studying in these schools were left with no option but to continue education in different schools.
“While we have ensured that all the schools are merged with other schools in the radius of one kilometer still we have decided to provide cycles to all the students so that they do not face any kind of problem in reaching the school and they do not drop out because of the distance,” Singh said.
Once the students receive the amount in their bank accounts, they will have to buy the cycle and submit the receipt to the principal of their respective schools. The school administration will then submit the school utility certificates regarding the same to the DSE who will further forward it to the State headquarter.
Talking about plans of school merger any further, the JEPC director informed that while there is no immediate plan, the department might consider merger in the future.
“We have asked the DSEs to provide us with a report from every district about schools with less enrollment or poor quality of education, if any, and then accordingly the final decision will be taken,” Singh said