E-Paper
14.5% increase in enrolment of students in Ludhiana’s primary schools
Among the top ten schools, seven schools are from Ludhiana, as per the enrolment progress list, released by the state education department
As many as 16,000 new students between the age of 3 and 10 have been enrolled in government primary schools of the district in pre-primary to Class 5 till Tuesday, registering an increase of 14.5% over that of last year. Last year, the total students were 1,09,000 and this year, the number has risen to 1,24,000.
Out of the total, 10,064 new students in the pre-primary class have been registered till date. The education department started the enrolment process for these classes in December 2019 and in the last five months, a large number of students from private schools have got admission in Classes 1 to 5.
There are over 1.25 lakh students studying in pre-primary classes to Class 5 in 994 government primary schools of the district.
In the enrolment progress list, released by the state education department, among the top ten, seven schools are from Ludhiana.
As per the list, over 728 new students have been enrolled in the Government Primary School, Giaspura, which tops in Punjab in enrolment as compared to that of last year. The school had 2,497 students admitted in the previous academic session and, in the last few months, the number reached 3,225.
School head Nisha Rani said, “We conducted the admissions online after the school was closed due to lockdown. The teachers are conducting online classes and many students are studying through television. After the school re-opens, we have sufficient rooms to accommodate the students.”
Next in the list is Government Primary School, Haibowal Khurd, where 338 new students have been enrolled, out of which 214 have enrolled in Class 1 alone.
The school head teacher, Shivani Sood, said, “During lockdown, I contacted a few students of the school, who had informed their friends regarding the facilities available in our schools such as free education and textbooks, smart classrooms, mid-day meal etc. I received frequent calls from the parents who have admitted their children in primary classes. Now, the strength of the school has reached up to 1,032.”
According to the list, Government Primary School, Lohara, ranked third in the list, where the school has enrolled 323 new students in different classes. Now the school has a total strength of 1,195 students now.
District education officer, elementary, Rajinder Kaur, said, “All the school heads and teachers have made a lot of efforts to increase enrolment. We also held meetings through Zoom with school heads to motivate them to enhance enrolment in their schools, which resulted in more new students opting for government schools. Deputy district education officer Kuldeep Singh also made efforts and encouraged school heads to enhance enrolment in government primary schools.”
