The topic of government primary schools has been constantly spoken about for the past few years. The chaos around closure of certain schools due to low enrolment and their merger with other schools has found prominent place in the media coverage across all the platforms. However, the government does not seem to have put in enough efforts to save these schools. Thanks to a recent startling revelation by Directorate of Education, 52% of the GPSs have less than 10 students studying in them.
The government had to shut down 6 GPSs during the educational year 2022-23 and indeed, the number is likely to go higher. If one observes closely, there are 712 primary schools in the State out of which 374 have enrolment of 10 students or less. What’s worrying is that all the schools which were closed down last year were run in vernacular languages. Out of 6 schools closed, 4 were run in Marathi medium, one was Marathi and Kannada medium while another one was Konkani-Marathi medium. The government’s policy in itself is such that the conditions of GPSs are worsening while the private ones are taking over. Generally an excuse that is always made for the low enrolment in Marathi and Konkani medium schools is that the children are not interested enough to go to these schools. That may be true to some extent but then how come private schools run in these same languages fare better? Will government pay attention to that? The government has to first understand that earlier there used to be just one school in the village and majority of the children had to go there regardless if there are good facilities or not. However, so is not the situation anymore. The rampant rise in the number of schools has driven the educational institutions into a highly competitive mode. Admitting more and more students in the school has become an art and the one who is more dramatic, wins this race. The government is responsible for this too. The government provides ample amenities and facilities to the private schools however treats their own schools like a stepfamily. Firstly, it’s about the state of the buildings which have been ageing over the years.
The timely repairs have seldom found their place on the governments to-do list and the result is most of these buildings are on the verge of collapse. Not to mention some already have. A few years back, the photos of students sitting under leaky roofs had gone viral. The picture is not too different today especially in the schools from rural areas. Another burning issue is that these schools just function with one or two teachers who handle all four classes. How is it possible for a single teacher to teach in 4 classes at the same time? This naturally affects the quality of education.
As it is the medium of instruction in these schools is either Marathi or Konkani, so when they reach in fifth standard, they struggle to cope up with English. That is the very reason why parents prefer to educate their child in English right from the first standard and this results in low enrolment for Marathi/Konkani medium schools. That explains why the government then has to shut down these schools. In private schools, each class has a separate class teacher and a dedicated subject teacher except sometimes when a teacher has to teach two subjects. The school runs on timetable. Extra curricular activities such as arts, sports, entertainment, festivals etc are organised systematically.
When students from private schools pass out from primary level and go to fifth standard, they’re much better prepared than the students from government schools. Since the medium of instruction from fifth standard is largely English, the students from GPS struggle a lot more than the ones from English primary schools. That is the main reason why GPSs have low enrolment and the government should seriously think about it. When Bhausaheb Bandodkar took reins of the State in 1963, he built 260 government primary schools within first six months of the government.
Those were the very schools which shaped numerous future politicians, government officials, artists, teachers, professors and so on. Which is why Bandodkar is credited with the laying of foundation of education in Goa. He did it in a time where facilities and funds were the biggest issues for a State which had just attained freedom from a colonial power. How come then politicians of today cannot do it now?
