Pb govt primary schools with less than 20 students to be

The Punjab education department has decided to merge government primary schools having less than 20 students with schools located within one km radius, an official said today.

But, the schools which are situated at a distance of more than one km will not be merged, even if its student strength is less than 20. No student will have to travel more than one km from his or her residence to go to school, an official spokesperson of the department said.

The decision is aimed at ensuring conducive academic environment and availing services of staff at places where they are needed the most, the official said.
 

On the directions of state education minister Aruna Chaudhary, pre-primary classes would be started to boost the standard of education government schools as well as strengthen primary education infrastructure, the spokesperson said.

Apart from this, the special budgetary provisions have been made to strengthen the basic infrastructure of government primary schools. Instruction in English language will be imparted from class one in 400 schools of the state. But, it is optional, the official said.

Terming the decision of merger as being in the interest of both students and teachers, the spokesperson said his will lead to the better educational atmosphere in the schools.

According to the spokesperson, many schools being merged are situated right next to the other and in many places, both the schools share a common wall.

Forty-seven of the schools facing merger have student strength of less than five and 15 of these have even less than three students, the spokesperson said.

However, the opposition Aam Aadmi Party condemned the move to merge primary schools and asked Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to learn from his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, who, the outfit said has completely "transformed" the condition of public schools in the national capital.

In a joint statement by AAP's state co-president Aman Arora, the party's Punjab Assembly deputy leader Sarabjit Kaur Manuke, MLAs Baljinder Kaur, Kultar Singh Sandhwan, Harpal Singh Cheema, Principal Budh Ram and Amarjit Singh Sandhoa asked the Congress government to should immediately stop the process of "shutting down nearly 800 primary schools" in the state.

"The people of Punjab reposed their faith in the Congress by electing Amarinder Singh as the chief minister... and now when it is the time for him to deliver on the promises he made during the Assembly polls he is not expected to run away," they said.

Arora said if the attendance of the children in certain government schools was less than 20 it was definitely not the fault of the parents or their wards.

"It is the responsibility of successive state governments which have failed to provide proper infrastructure for the success of primary schools", he said.

Arora said Punjab chief minister and the state education minister must hold meetings with Delhi's deputy chief minister Manish Shisodia to learn how the AAP government has been "successfully able to transform" the condition of government schools in the national capital.