Delhi’s north civic body merges 12 schools due to poor enrolment

A senior education department official said that the enrolments in the schools being closed was very low as the areas they were located in have gradually lost the residential character over the last decade with more commercial operations coming up in the locations

Just two weeks after South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) issued orders to merge 29 civic schools, the North MCD has also undertaken a similar exercise and merged 16 primary schools in the Walled City area under City-Sadar Paharganj zone, where enrolment numbers are low, with existing institutes nearby. Officials said that in all, 40 schools under the civic body will be merged.

Jogi Ram Jain, the standing committee chairman, confirmed that orders regarding merging of 16 schools have been issued, but said that he has not been informed about the preparations for merging 40 schools in all. (Representative image)

“Principals and school in-charges will ensure that offline/online classes of the school children will start in respective school in which they have been merged with immediate effect. A copy of handed over/take over with all types of school records must be submitted,” said the order issued by assistant director (education) Jagdish Chandra Joshi to the 12 schools on January 31.

The schools already merged with other institutions are: Municipal Corporation Primary School (MCPS) Nabi Karim-2, Hanuman Mandir (G), Hanuman Mandir (B), Idgah road old(2), Idgah road (new), Haveli Azam Khan, Ram Nagar, BT Rai, Kuncha Pati Ram, Kuncha Qabil Attar, Roshanara road, Gali Qasim Jan, Ballimaran, Kashmiri Bagh, Multani Dhanda and More Sarai.

A senior education department official said that the enrolments in the schools being closed was very low as the areas they were located in have gradually lost the residential character over the last decade with more commercial operations coming up in the locations. “Some of these schools are 30-35 years old; when they were set up, the areas were completely residential. The number of students are now low and they can be accommodated in other existing schools in the zone,” said the official, adding that the merged schools will become co-ed schools.

On Wednesday, the education department called a meeting of in-charges and heads of 75 schools for the next phase of mergers which, officials said, is likely to see at least 40 civic schools shutting operations after transferring their students to nearby institutions.

Jogi Ram Jain, the standing committee chairman, confirmed that orders regarding merging of 16 schools have been issued, but said that he has not been informed about the preparations for merging 40 schools in all. “I also consulted with the education committee chairperson and the decision of further closures was not taken at our level. We will check with the officials concerned. Most of our schools have students from economically weaker sections and with increased in commercialisation of these areas, there aren’t many such students in these areas. So we decided to merge the schools with nearby institutes for better utilisation of resources,” said Jain, adding that while the numbers may be low in these specific schools, the overall enrolment has gone up.

Kuldeep Khatri, who heads the Shikshak Nyay Manch Nagar Nigam, a teachers’ union, said, “A few days ago, the civic body was claiming that the number of students is going up, then why are these schools being shut? We will not allow sale of any school properties and we will resist the move.”

Data from the North MCD education department till December 2021 shows that the enrolment in the 700 of its schools went up from 267,000 last year to 341,000 in the current academic year, with experts attributing the increase to the economic distress on account of the pandemic as many students switched from smaller private schools to government schools.

Cumulatively, the number of primary school students enrolled in 1,646 schools run by three corporations has gone up from 720,000 in 2020-21 to 871,000 in the current year.

The number of municipal primary schools have been constantly going down in the Capital. In October 2018, the North MCD had similarly cleared the move to merge 30 schools in areas like Inderpuri, Dev Nagar, Nimari Colony, Ajmal Khan Road, Molar Basti, Pratap Kunj, Sangam park and Avantika, citing low enrollment numbers.