Dismal performance reflect wastage of resources
Abrar A. Mattoo
SRINAGAR, Sep 25: Despite having a twofold teacher student-ratio and abundant resources available; the government schools across Jammu and Kashmir crave for much needed educational and infrastructural reforms to improve their performance.
According to data provided to Kashmir Despatch by Private Schools Association Jammu and Kashmir, with 1,02,827 teachers, teaching 12,71,045 students in 23,165 schools, the teacher-student ratio in government schools of Jammu and Kashmir is two-fold to that of private schools in Jammu and Kashmir.
In contrast, only 69,632 teachers are teaching 12,60,284 students in 5585 private schools, where the standards of learning and results thereof are comparatively better than government schools across Jammu and Kashmir. Similarly, the spending in the government schools is also higher compared to the private schools.
On average the government spends Rs. 11000 per student per year in a government school (excluding mid-day meals, uniform, and books) while on average, across Jammu and Kashmir, the expenditure incurred on a single student in a private school during a year is only Rs. 6600 approximately.
“The reason that the education in government schools is in ambles is not that the government is not paying any heed towards the quality and standard of education in these institutions, but because there is no accountability. We have better teachers, teaching our children in government schools, but still, the quality of results is bad. The reason is a lack of accountability. There are some schools where forty teachers are teaching only twenty children. This should not happen if we don’t want to see half the population deprived of quality education,” a senior educator of the valley said while speaking with Kashmir Despatch.
The latest government figures reveal that the school dropout rate in Jammu and Kashmir during 2019-2020 was 3.7 in elementary and 16.6 in the secondary level. These numbers are one of the highest in-country, and mostly the dropouts are from the government schools, belonging to educationally backward classes and below poverty line households.
Pertinently, the number of girl student dropouts has also been rising in the past few years. According to government data, the girl student dropouts from schools during the years 2018-2019 was 6.9 in elementary and 17.7 in secondary.
Though no latest data is available on the subject, it can be assumed that since school education has been continuously disrupted during the past three years, the number of school dropouts must be higher than in the past. At 68%, the female literacy rate is 17.70% less than the male literacy rate in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Education was made compulsory in 1951, but we have less literacy rate compared to other parts of the country, why has Jammu and Kashmir not become an educational hub of the country. Why do our students still go out of the valley to pursue education? We need to ask ourselves this question,” Vijay Dhar, the chairman of the DPS schools added.
While commenting upon the quality education in Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Tasaduq Hussain, Director of school education said at a seminar here on Friday, “my slogan is, Padho ‘Read’ and Padhao ‘Teach’, because knowledge is power.”
It remains to be seen whether the standard of education, especially in Government schools, would improve in the coming years; if not, then the future of the coming generation seems to be very bleak, an academician observed.
