Wake up call for J&K’s education sector
The recent trends coming to fore with regard to the school education department have set alarm bells ringing for the authorities. It demands plugging the gaps in the basic functioning of the department with special focus on the primary schools which form the foundation stage of the education sector.
The closure of the schools, the decline in the student enrolment in existing schools, and the poor learning outcomes among the students have thrown out a major challenge for the department to go beyond meetings and explore what caused a downfall in the government-run-education system.
Recently, a revelation came to fore exposing the mis-utilisation of the resources in the School Education Department as the student population as per the UDISE 2023-24 has reduced to zero in 119 schools leaving services of over 200 teachers unutilised.
The schools with zero enrolment exist mostly in Srinagar and Jammu cities besides other towns located adjacent to these cities.
This revelation came almost nine years after the government in 2015 clubbed 2400 schools for having meagre or zero enrolment.
As per the latest UDISE 2023-24 data J&K has 24241 schools including 18724 government run schools and 5517 private schools.
Some decades ago, the Government of India launched the much hyped SSA scheme with a vision to provide free and compulsory education to children between 6 and 14 years of age.
However, in Jammu and Kashmir, the scheme has gone down the drain over the years as 24 percent of the schools established under the flagship programme faced closure due to zero or less enrolment of the students.
As per the official figures, since the inception of the scheme, as many as 18021 schools-- primary 10690 and upper primary schools-7331 were established under the scheme.
Out of this, around 2400 schools were clubbed under the process of rationalisation in 2015 and 2016 and were later officially closed and subsequently removed from UDISE as well.
With the official closure of these clubbed schools, the number of schools was decreased to 18724 as 4393 schools were officially closed by the government. The closure of the schools has exposed the haphazard execution of the scheme. The schools were established in places where there was no such requirement, with the result the schools could not maintain encouraging roll and were closed by the government.
Besides the closure of the schools and the decrease in the enrolment, the decrease in the learning outcomes among students at primary and upper primary levels, as revealed in the latest National Survey has thrown up a major challenge for the government.
The survey has exposed the lack of focus from the government on the primary and upper primary level schools across Jammu and Kashmir.
This is not the first time that the poor learning outcomes among the school children at primary and upper primary levels has come to fore. This has been a trend for the last many years but the department is yet to act on ground to fill the gaps and address the root cause.
The poor learning outcomes at primary and upper primary level schools raises questions about the availability of the trained teachers which ultimately results in poor learning outcomes of the students.
Over the years it has been seen that the government has shifted its focus from primary and upper primary schools to high and higher secondary schools only to focus on improving annual pass percentage of the students in Board exams at 10th and 12th level.
However, no attention is given to the foundational stage. At present, there are dozens of schools at primary level which are manned by one or two teachers and have only one or two rooms for five classes. The situation is no different at upper primary level as well where one can see a dearth of accommodation and teachers as well. Besides facing an acute dearth of proper classrooms and teaching staff at primary and upper primary level schools in rural areas, there are certain schools in city and towns where the department has adjusted influential teachers. In these schools, the teachers mostly outnumber students. But the department, despite being aware of the situation, has failed to rationalise the staff and fill the gaps. If the department shifts its focus on foundational stage-primary level schools, the scenario will altogether change in coming years.
The latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)-2024 has pointed out that while learning levels across India were showing significant improvement, the situation in J&K presents a contrasting trend. “The region has experienced a learning loss of 2.3 percentage points in reading and 2.1 percentage points in Arithmetic,” the ASER-2024 has revealed.
It has revealed that since 2022, reading and arithmetic levels for class 5th students have improved, with a more significant increase among children in private schools compared to those in government schools. “This pattern contrasts with the national trend,” it reads. The survey has further exposed the serious infrastructural gaps in the J&K’s school education sector besides the poor learning outcomes of the students at the primary and the upper primary level.
The ASER-2024 has pointed out that the 1st primary kids in 84% primary schools are accommodated with the students of other classes while the students of 2nd primary are accommodated with students of other classes in 83 percent primary schools.
In case of upper primary schools or higher level, 72 percent schools have been found accommodating students of 1st primary with students of other classes while 67% upper primary schools accommodate 2nd primary kids with students of other classes.
The ASER-2024 has pointed out that only 21.8 percent students of class 5th primary in government schools can read the text of 2nd primary level as compared to 24.3 percent recorded in 2022. The findings have raised the questions on the competent authorities to bring accountability in the system. As per the findings of the survey, only 47 percent students in class 8th can read the text of the class 2nd primary. The percentage has reduced from 55.5 percent recorded in 2018 and 50.2 percent in 2022. Going by the overall calculations, the learning outcomes of the students has decreased by 8.3 percent since 2018.
The findings of the latest national level survey and other revelations should act as an eye opener for the government and steps should be taken to plug the gaps.
The department should not only count the children enrolled in high and higher secondary schools as the majority of these students shift from private schools at secondary or senior secondary level with comparatively strong learning outcomes.
The need of the hour is to focus on the learning outcomes of students at the foundational stage which can be done by posting specialised teachers at primary and upper primary level schools. As the schools are set to open from next month, the department while taking all stakeholders on board should start working in a mission mode to address these issues.
Rather than issuing circulars, instructions, the department should encourage two way communication and seek suggestions and feedback from the teachers to address the basic problems in the department.
This is the right time for the department to act and understand the real problem. The government needs to act on ground or be ready to face further closure of the schools. Hope good sense prevails before it is too late for the department to act.
