Chandigarh told to work on enrolment, dropout rates in schools

The gross enrolment ratio and net enrolment ratio have declined for the 2019-2020 session across all levels in Chandigarh schools

The gross enrolment ratio and net enrolment ratio have declined for the 2019-2020 session across all levels in Chandigarh schools.

The Centre has said the Chandigarh education department should focus on improving the gross enrolment ratio at all levels and to identify the reasons for its decline.

The education ministry has asked the UT education department to look into it, according to minutes of the project approval board (PAB) meeting that was held in June to consider the annual work plan and budget of the Samagra Shiksha programme. The minutes were released recently.

The meeting was held under the chairpersonship of secretary school education and literacy from the Union ministry of education and was attended by various officers, including UT education secretary SS Gill, director, SCERT, Chandigarh, SS Dahiya and the district education officer back then Neena Kalia among others from Chandigarh.

Chandigarh told to work on enrolment, dropout rates in schools

As per the report under the appraisal issues and commitments for the 2021-2022 session, it was highlighted how the gross enrolment ratio and net enrolment ratio has gone down in 2019-2020 compared to 2018-2019 at primary, upper primary, elementary, secondary and higher secondary levels. The Centre has said the state should focus on improving the gross enrolment ratio at these levels and to identify the reasons for its decline and improve the net enrolment rate by bringing children to the age-appropriate classes.

The report highlights the dropout rate of boys at the secondary level which has gone up from 4.7% in 2018-2019 to 5.9% in 2019-2020. There are 996 vacant posts in elementary and 274 vacant posts in secondary government schools which must be filled on priority. In the 3-18 age group there are an estimated 3,681 children with special needs who are out of school and only 21 faculty positions against 45 have been filled in the SCERT which the report points out should be fixed.

In the 2020-2021 session to fix the dropout rate, the department in their reply in the meeting said no tuition fee was charged from those earning less than 1.5 lakh per annum and other special categories. The department said 412 JBT teachers and 155 TGTs had been recruited and seven heads on the basis of direct recruitment. The Centre has asked them to improve these further.