Uttar Pradesh govt refuses to bow to pressure, merges nearly 10,000 schools
Talking to Hindustan Times, additional chief secretary, basic education, Deepak Kumar said about 9000 to 10,000 government-run primary and upper primary schools have been merged (or paired) and added that exact number will be shared with the press in August when the process is completed.
'It is a long exercise given the size of the state and needs to be handled with care as it concerns students,' Kumar said ahead of basic education minister Sandeep Singh's proposed press conference scheduled for Thursday.
There has been some misinformation in circulation that schools with more than 50 students have been merged which is not true, he said, adding that one must look at the larger picture.
'We are doing this exercise keeping in mind the larger interest of students so that they get better infrastructures and facilities on bigger school premises,' he said.
He clarified that due to some unavoidable circumstances, a few schools with more than 60-70 students or even more have been merged because the parent school building either got swept away in floods or they are being run in dilapidated structures and have been shifted to a nearby building till the old one is bulldozed and a new structure comes up.
When asked whether there is any fixed criteria for the number of children for pairing of schools, the ACS said,
'Yes, we have said that schools with less than 50 students will be merged. Yes, from some places it has been reported that even schools with 70 children are being closed but as I have told you that those were special cases where school buildings either got washed away or in bad shape. Hence students were shifted to nearby schools.'
Mentioning the student-teacher ratio once the schools are paired, he said, 'We think it should be around 1:30 to 1:35, which is an ideal situation.'
When told that in several parts of the state, primary schools are closed temporarily due to flooding, he said basic education department officials are working on all parameters in the larger interest of the students.
The state government has initiated the exercise of conducting audits of safety mechanisms and facilities for children in schools. The initiative is a part of the missive from the ministry of education that issued a directive to all states and Union Territories, requiring them to carry out an audit of safety mechanisms.
'A majority of the government-run schools have been renovated under the Operation Kayakalp initiative and there would be few schools only that need to be restored. On that front, our government schools are in better condition. Safety of the students is our top priority,' he said.
In connection with the pairing of schools, a number of students and parents alleged that now their kids have to travel a long distance to reach their school. At this, ACS said the basic education department officials were told to look into the complaints and if there are any genuine issues, problems should be resolved.
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