33 govt primary schools in Ludhiana dist show no improvement in enrolment

The reasons cited by primary education officers are many of these schools are run by a single teacher and population of the village is less compared to others

The new academic session at government schools started with online classes three months ago amid the Covid-19 outbreak, but, over 33 government primary schools in Ludhiana have shown no improvement in enrolment.

There are 993 primary schools in the district and some of those situated in blocks including Macchiwara-1, Sidhwan Bet 1 and 2, Delhon- 2 and Mangat 3 have shown zero progress in enrolment since last year. Of the 33 schools, 13 are from Macchiwara-1 block.

The reasons cited by primary education officers are many of these schools are run by a single teacher and population of the village is less compared to others.

Government Primary School, Shekh Kutab, situated in Sidhwan Bet 2, has only nine students from pre-primary to Class 5, which is the same as last year.

Harbhajan Singh, block primary education officer, Sidhwan Bet 1, said, “This school is run by a single teacher who is making efforts to increase enrolment. But, a private school nearby is providing transport facility and villagers also prefer sending their children there. In many villages, the population is very low due to which government schools have few students.”

“I have told teachers of these schools to enhance enrolment and send the report by Monday”, he added.

District education officer (elementary), Rajinder Kaur, said, “We have been able to increase enrolment in government primary schools of the district by 28% and schools with low enrolment have been motivated through video conference meetings to improve their student strength. We are gathering data on schools which have enhanced enrolment and require more teachers and rooms to take classes. This will be sent to the state education department to provide the same.”