In Jammu and Kashmir at least 65 government schools are having zero student enrolment and more than five thousand primary schools are with less than 30 enrolment and over 1500 schools are reeling under enrolment with only 15 students each.
According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the Ministry of Education (MoE) for Government of India (GoI) in a recent report has said, “Out of the total 18,785 government schools in the UT, there are 65 schools including 62 primary and three upper primary schools are with zero enrolment.”
“5073 primary schools are with less than 30 enrolment and 1597 schools are with less than 15 enrolment,” MoE said.
The ministry has further mentioned that in addition, the number of schools with an adverse Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) at the primary level is 16 percent.
MoE has requested the Jammu and Kashmir authorities to look at the number of schools with adverse PTR and had asked to identify the reasons of low enrolment. “Address on priority including the rationalisation of teachers.”
“Based on the UTs proposal in different years, a total of 1869 schools have been approved for skill education under Samagra Shiksha. Out of these approved schools, the UT has been able to implement skill education in l62l schools only,” it reads.
The MoE further said that the current school coverage stands at only 72.19 percent with implementation across l5 sectors including, Agriculture, Automotive, Beauty and Wellness, Electronics and Hardware, Healthcare, Retail, Information Technology and Tourism, Media and Entertainment, Plumbing, Power, Private Security, Sports and Physical education, Telecom and Tourism and Hospitality.
The UT was advised to extend the coverage of skill education to the uncovered schools and students by introducing appropriate sectors and job roles—(KNO)
