l Over 50% schools don’t have a playground l Drop-out rate much higher than national average l Enrollment in private schools over 78% l Nearly 26% institutions have just one teacher at primary level
SHWETA KAMAT
shweta@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Less than 50% of schools in Goa have a playground for students and other extra-curricular activities, data from Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan office indicates.
The retention or drop-out rate is also 112.19%, much higher than the national average of 66.71%. The enrollment has also declined from 110.75% to 105.76% at the primary and upper primary levels.
Data also shows that a large number of students prefer private aided schools compared to private unaided and government schools. Nearly 78.45% students have enrolled in private schools, while 21.55% prefer government schools and another 15.42% like private unaided schools.
While the percentage of Muslim students has been stagnant at 11.17% for last two years, there is decline in students from other backward classes. Students from Scheduled Castes on the other hand have shown an increase in enrollment while in case of Schedule Tribes the figures are stagnant.
Nearly 26% institutions in Goa have only one teacher at primary level, where the enrollment of students is just 2.85%. The State is also facing a serious problem of having highest number of aged teachers — above 55 — compared to the rest of India.
Around 12.44% of teachers are aged 55 years and above and will be due for retirement in next the five years. There are 11,217 teachers across different schools of which 0.73% are on contract.
The State’s data on teacher
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parameter was notable with close to 80% being females and with an average of one teacher for every 18 students as against the national average of one teacher for 27 students.
The percentage of single teacher primary schools came down from 37% to 26% in 2013-14. In 2011-12, 33% primary schools had a single teacher.
On an average, a government school in Goa had two classrooms for students, while the national average is three.
MID-DAY MEALS: The data compiled for HRD by National University for Educational Planning and Administration has ranked Goa second in the supply of mid-day meal. However, the data does not highlight the quality of food.
Interestingly, the percentage of institutions covered under the scheme has shown a decline from 96% in 2012-13 to 92.64% in 2013-14.
The fact that almost 99% of schools don’t prepare mid-day meals in their premises, the schools have not marked any kitchen shed for their use, despite Manohar Parrikar-led government suggesting that schools should have their own premises to prepare meals.
Goa has witnessed a series of food poisoning incidents in schools due to mid-day meals served by self-help groups. Though the Education Department claims to have revamped the scheme, no tangible changes seem to have taken place on the ground.
