Riyaz Bhat
Srinagar, Jan 18 : Despite closing of hundreds of public schools owing to low or zero student enrolment, at least 119 government-run-schools are still functioning with zero student enrolment—thus raising a question on functioning of the department.
The updated official figures reveal that in Jammu and Kashmir 119 schools were functioning in the region with no student enrolled in the institution.
According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), at least 238 teachers were posted or deployed in the schools wherein no student was enrolled.
The official data further states that Jammu and Kashmir was facing the Pupil Teacher Ratio of 1:16 against the prescribed norms of 1:30.
It also states that on an average at least seven teachers were posted or deployed in schools of Jammu and Kashmir.
Despite repeated attempts, Project Director Jammu and Kashmir Samagra Shiksha was not available to comment on the issue.
In 2024, KNO first broke the news of closure of over 4400 government run schools owing to ‘zero or extremely low’ enrollment of students.
In July-2024, the news agency reported that there were a total of 23,117 government run schools in Jammu and Kashmir out of which 4394 have been deleted from the UDISE data.
An official had said that the count of overall public schools in Jammu and Kashmir reduced because “There were some government schools that were having zero or extremely low students enrollment. Those schools were merged with the nearby public schools.”
The official figures previously had revealed that the primary schools category of government schools was hit badly wherein the count of overall public schools in Jammu and Kashmir reduced by nearly 30 percent.
According to the official figures a total of 12,977 government primary schools were functioning in Jammu and Kashmir. However, after the merger, only 8966 primary schools are functional.
Similarly, 392 government middle schools, three high schools and one higher secondary were deleted from the UDISE Plus list.
Stating the statistics of private and other schools, the official figures had previously revealed that there were a total of 5688 such educational institutes out of which only 5555 schools were functional as of now.
Overall, Jammu and Kashmir used to have 28,805 government and private schools. However, as per the official figures, the count had reduced to 24,279 schools.
Previously, the School Education Department had said that it had identified more than 1200 such government schools that were having low enrollment of students.
It had said that such schools would likely be merged in accordance to the catchment and feasibility of the students.
In April-2022, School Education Department had said that it was all set to merge 720 government-run-schools of Jammu and Kashmir having an inadequate student enrollment—(KNO)
