Maharashtra: Empty classrooms haunt Vidarbha, coastal schools

Most government schools in Maharashtra are facing a crisis but it has now emerged that schools run by the state and local bodies in coastal districts and Vidarbha are the most affected. A whopping 1,153 such schools in Maharashtra have only five or lesser number of students on their roll. Of them, 515 (45 per cent) belong to just three coastal districts – Raigad, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri – according to the government's own statistics obtained by this correspondent under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Vidarbha, considered to be the least developed region of Maharashtra, has also shunned free-schooling programme offered by the state. The region accounts for one-fifth of schools (252) with five or lesser students. Pune and Satara districts, too, account for 94 and 85 such schools respectively, as against Mumbai, which has only one such institution.

"There are 3,878 such schools in the state that have 10 students or lesser," revealed the RTI response. Maharashtra has nearly 67,700 institutions run by the state government and local bodies, which means over 6 per cent of them are in serious trouble.

The Vernacular medium of education, poor teaching quality, cramped infrastructure, lack of students, perception in the society, apathy of the government and local bodies towards their own schools and aggressive efforts of the private sector are said to be major factors behind this "never before" situation, say experts.

And the private sector is flourishing at the loss of government sector. The latest CAG report had revealed that enrollment in government schools has declined by 7 per cent from 2010-11 to 2013-14. Meanwhile, enrollment in private unaided schools has grown by a whopping 21 per cent in the same period.

"Several private schools have come up in the remote areas of Vidarbha, Konkan and Pune regions. Private schools are perceived as offering better education. The craze for english medium education among parents has gone up in villages and denting our enrollment," admitted a government official.

Better development of Konkan region leading to increased affordability is considered to be a significant factor behind this trend. "Now many people in coastal areas can afford private and english medium education," said educationist Farida Lambe, associated with Pratham. She also pointed out that many government schools still offer education up to Class VII only, while private schools are up to Class X. Lambe said, "Most corporation schools in Navi Mumbai are doing good as they offer english medium education. Even BMC's experiment with english and semi-english school has led to an improved demand."

To consolidate its resources, the BJP-Sena government had initiated a "restructuring exercise" to close or merge all those schools that have 10 or lesser number of students within months of coming to power. dna was the first to report the development in its April 24 edition.

Nearly 30,000 kids are expected to face forced transfers to other government institutions, so do over 8,000 teachers, in this biggest-ever closure exercise in the state. "This will help us optimise the primary education budget. Schools with 10 or lesser kids eat up over Rs270 crore annually in teachers' salary only," says the official.