Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh): In a concerning development for the authorities in terms of the pupil-teacher ratio, nearly 300 schools in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara have failed to enroll even a single student with 40000 students quitting government schools in the last five years, official data have revealed.
The alarming revelations were made at a recent meeting of the Madhya Pradesh State Education Department. Acording to the data, there are 299 schools in Chhindwara where not even a single child has been admitted in the Class 1st. Likewise, there are 805 schools in the district where only one or two children have taken new admission, the data reveal. According to the figures of the education department, there are a total of 2581 government primary-secondary schools in the district.
According to the official data, 40,000 children left government schools in the last five years in Chhindwara district. The data further revealed that there are more than a thousand government primary-secondary schools, where the student enrolled is constantly decreasing. As per the data, there are 299 schools with zero enrollment in class I, 805 schools have one to two enrollment, 1106 schools have 0 to 3 and 802 schools have only 3 to 5 enrollment. Also, there are 514 schools where 6 to 10 children have been enrolled and only 159 schools have more than ten enrollments, the data revealed.
According to the data, the number of students enrolled in class I has been affected the most, where there have been seven and a half thousand fewer admissions compared to last year. For the last ten years, the number of students enrolled in classes I to VIII has been decreasing continuously as per the data. However, there was a jump in the number of students enrolled in the year 2022-23 when the education department recorded over five thousand more admissions than the preceding year. However, immediately after this, in the year 2023-24, this figure came down to 1,69,346.
Quality Education A Concern: Anuj Chaukse, a member of the District Parents' Association, said that private schools are charging hefty fees, but even after this, people are compelled to enroll their children in private schools to give them good education.
“Despite highly paid teachers and facilities at government schools, the quality of education is not there due to which, most parents are getting their children enrolled in private schools instead of government schools,'' he said.
District Education Center's DPC JK Idpachi said, ''Under the Right to Education Act, 25 percent of the enrolled students in private schools are to be given free admission in class 1. Every year more than 4,000 students are getting admission in the district under RTE. Still, campaigns are being run continuously to increase the enrollment in schools. Schools with low enrollment have been asked to improve.''
