A week ago, Chief Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar, who also holds the Education portfolio, while addressing a gathering at Government Primary School (GPS) at Guddemol-Sanvordem asserted that his government has given top priority to education. Additionally, he said that a provision of 15 percent has been made in the state budget for this purpose. However, the government probably ignored to take an account of the ground reality of not giving priority to Government Primary Schools in Mormugao taluka. Hence, a few of these schools have have been shutting down every year. If the trend continues, the taluka will soon have no GPS.
GPS Bogmalo was forced to shut down last academic year and now GPS Gandhinagar, a Kannada medium school which has been under operation in rented premises for the last 18 years will soon also close down due to no enrolments in the current year.
The issue of the closure of these schools is alarming and so a Herald Investigation Team (HIT) decided to find out the root cause of the issue. The results were shocking.
Sources at the Assistant District Education Inspectors (ADEI), Vasco confirmed that they would soon send a report to the education department that GPS Gandhinagar had ‘nil’ enrolments this year and hence needs to be shut down. “Although all four teachers of the school have been asked to report to a different GPS in the taluka, the school is yet to officially be declared closed,” sources said.
The HIT met the head master and some teachers of the school in question. “We had sufficient enrolment last year. Over 18 students were studying in the school located in a primarily Kannada speaking area. However, the owner of the premises which houses the school has asked authorities to vacate his space,” said headmaster Raman Gauda Biradar. He also said, “The owner asked us to vacate last year itself. However, we were unable to find alternate premises within the stipulated rent fixed by the department which is 50 percent less than the current market price of premises available on rent.”
Ironically, local parents don’t want the schools to close as they believe that the education a child receives is satisfactory. “My daughter studied in this school and today she is in college doing her B.Sc first year. The area is Kannada dominated. Many children will now be forced to take admission in neighbouring government schools located a distance away and having no transport facilities,” said Nagraj Ghondkar, a social worker.
Sadly, despite an expenditure of several crores for elementary education in Goa, enrolment in GPS has been decreasing every year due to various reasons, the most striking ones being the unattractive buildings, lack of amenities, lack of transport facilities and traditional methods of teaching. The decreasing enrolment has also raised questions about the effectiveness of schemes launched by the government to attract students.
“The state government has launched several programmes to provide free text books, uniforms and midday meals to attract and retain students in primary schools. However, the efforts aren’t yielding positive results,” said a parent from Vasco.
If we look at statistics, enrolment of students across Mormugao has gone down by 25 percent from 2012 to 2016, whereas admission to private schools has increased. As per records obtained by the office of the ADEI, Vasco for the academic year 2013-2014, Mormugao had 23 GPS at various places. However, in 2014-2015, two GPS at Assai-Dongri and Pixem-Dongri closed down. In 2015-2016, GPS Bogmalo had to close down and in the current year, GPS Gandhinagar is likely to be declared closed soon. GPS at Sindolim, Sancoale is on the verge of facing a similar situation in the next year.
Officials sources told Herald that even the government’s approach to merge schools with less than 10 players with nearby schools did not bear any fruit. Teachers of the closed schools are moved to nearby schools which are still in operation.
It is left to be seen whether the state government will take serious note of the closure of the schools. However, it is a fact that the GPS are receiving step motherly treatment from the state government. Otherwise, the situation would have been different.
