Twenty-one government schools in Ponda taluka are facing closure in the coming academic year due to poor enrollment.

Economically poor parents consider Government Primary schools as great support to them since they provide free education without hefty fees, free books, raincoats, etc. But with decreasing enrolments every year, there is a panic created among the poor parents who feel that they will lose the facility of providing free education to their children in the near future.

They feel the government must take interest in safeguarding these existing schools. Some of them say that closure of these schools may deprive their children the basic education as many of them think that it would not be possible for them to pay hefty fees in private schools and educating their wards will be a costly affair.

With the gap between the rich and the poor widening nowadays the government primary schools are failing to attract students mostly due to  lack of proper facilities. The middle class or rich parents are now sending their children to private schools where there are better facilities while the poor are always worried because the government schools keep dwindling every year.

According to sources in the Education Department office at Ponda, government primary schools in the Taluka are reducing every year. In the last five years 29 government primary Schools were closed down. At present there are 21 schools which have 10 students or less than what is required and many of the primary schools are likely to close in 2018-19.

Recently as per the government policy due to very poor enrollment the Central and State Government is planning to close down schools with less enrollment or merge such schools with to nearest one.

Thus poor parents are worried that they will be forced to shift their children to private schools and will have to pay huge fees even though they cannot afford it.

Goa’s first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar had established many government schools where the poor and the rich alike used to study along side.

Nowadays parents with good financial background reallocate their children to private run schools hoping that their children can face life in the competitive world and dream of making them doctors, engineers or professionals in some fields, while their poor are shown the red flag because of their economical state. Thus several primary schools in the taluka which were once abuzz with activities and students attended classes, are today witnessing eerie silence as the schools are closed due to lack of facilities.

According to Professor Namdev Naik at Marcaim it is the primary responsibility of Government to provide primary education to students with good infrastructure. If government schools are forced to close down every year, a time will come when there will be schools for rich and poor, Naik.

The villagers say the government should upgrade the schools so that they match with the quality of education provided in private schools. Equal opportunity of education give rise to unity, friendship, love, affection among children, said Namdev.

Poor children will not able to pay the hefty fees of private schools,” says Viraj Sapre from Ponda. “Currently some private schools charge between Rs 5000 and Rs 25,000 for getting admission in their schools. How will the poor be able to pay the huge amount after closure of government schools which are the only means for the poor villagers to educate their wards?” Viraj wondered.

During the academic year 2012-13 there were 140 govt primary schools in the taluka, and out which nine closed down during 2013-14, while in the year 2014-15 four were shut. In 2015-16 7 schools were closed while 6 schools shut down in 2016-17 and three in the last academic year (2017-18).