The other side of the story

Poor resource allocation and swankier private competitors are two of the many reasons government schools are losing students rapidly

The government primary school at Buddi village in Uttarakhand is more an aberration than the norm. Run by a highly motivated 56-year-old head teacher, the school has 86 Muslim children across five grades. It, however, has only four teachers, including the head herself, to teach the five grades. Not long ago, the school functioned with three teachers but after the recent thrust on Urdu, a new Urdu teacher was allotted to the school, taking their count to four.

Not far away in Bhoodpur village, a single teacher manages a total of 35 students across five grades, leading to a chaotic school