Pune district has 1,26,894 students absent

A whopping 1,26,894 students in Pune district were found absent in the recent enrollment audit of schools and junior colleges conducted by the state government. This gave Pune district a percentage of absenteeism at 12%, while Solapur district (19%) recorded the worst absenteeism in Pune division, comprising five districts.

In the results released by the Pune divisional commissioner, Dilip Band here on Monday, Solapur district had 82,882 students absent from the 4,537 schools inspected.

While Pune division in entirety recorded 13% absenteeism, Pune district alone showed the lowest absenteeism (12%). Absenteeism was also high in Satara district (15%), followed by Sangli and Kolhapur (14%).

Band said 2 to 3 schools in each district were found to be bogus and had either inflated the number of students or got students “on hire” for the inspection. “One common abnormality was that instead of making a division of 40 students, these schools had made divisions of 25 students. This might be to accommodate extra teachers who are getting salary grants,” he said.

He said the rule specifies a division to be of at least 40 students, exceeding which a new division can be formed of 25 students or more. “Some schools have genuinely misunderstood and made smaller divisions, while others have done so deliberately to hide fewer students or extra teachers,” said Band.

In Pune division maximum instances of bogus schools are ashram shalas (tribal residential schools), while maximum absenteeism was in schools run by the two municipal corporations of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.