Govt seeks answer for low turnout in Ahmedabad civic schools

Gujarat state education department on Wednesday sought explanation from Ahmedabad Municipal School Board for plummeting enrollment in Class I of municipal schools in Ahmedabad.

The development is a consequence of DNA’s report in the issue on July 9. There has been a 43% decline in number of students admitted to Class I this year.

Authorities of AMC’s school board have authenticated DNA’s report, and also replied that reasons explained for the decline are valid.

It should be noted that enrollments in municipal schools of Ahmedabad have been decreasing with each passing year. Only 17,000 students were admitted to Class I this year, which is a 43% plunge from 30,600 students enrolled in 2011.

In light of this report, state education department has written a letter to AMC school board seeking explanation on the issue.

Administrative officer of Ahmedabad Municipal School Board, Lagdhir Desai confirmed this development and said that the school board has replied that reasons mentioned by the chairman are responsible for decline in enrollment of students. Jagdish Bhavsar, chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal School Board, had blamed relocation of slums due to infrastructure projects and NGO Gyanshaala for low turnout of students in municipal schools.

“We have assured that number of students will go up, and we will achieve our target by August 31,” said Desai.

Interestingly, Ahmedabad Municipal School Board has been witnessing drop in number of students every year, save for the last one year. According to data provided by the school board, there were 1,50,644 students from Class I-VII in 2010-11. This number increased in 2011-12, courtesy the 11,500 students that were included in the newly-formed Class VIII. Excluding this, there has been decrease of 1,000 students in Class I-VII.