Over 300 Government Primary Schools Operating With Single Classroom: Gujarat Government (image: Unsplash/Bisworaj Saheb)
The Gujarat government told the legislative assembly on Tuesday that 341 state-run primary schools in the state are operating with single classrooms. It was in response to Congress MLA Kirit Patel”s query during Question Hour of the ongoing Budget session, these details were revealed by the Education Minister Kuber Dindor.
In a written response, the Education minister mentioned demolition of dilapidated classrooms in recent times, meagre attendance of students, and non-availability of land to construct new classrooms are some of the reasons behind this situation.
“As soon as possible,” Minister guaranteed the House that new classrooms in these schools will be constructed in phases.
When MLA Patel inquired about vacant posts of class-1 and class-2 officers of the Gujarat Education Service cadre, Kuber Dindor responded that 781 posts were filled whereas 1,459 posts remains unfilled as of December 31, 2023.
The vacant positions will be filled at the earliest through promotions and direct recruitment, the Minister responded.
Congress MLA accused that the quality of education in the State under the ruling BJP is diminishing and added that Gujarat stands nowhere in comparison to other states.
“The BJP government is good at only doing publicity and projecting Gujarat as a model state while the reality is different. As per the Performance Grading Index Report of 2023, nearly 25 per cent of children studying in primary schools in Gujarat can”t even read Gujarati while 47.20 per cent can”t read English. Gujarat was not in the top five states which performed well in terms of education,” NDTV reports as Kirit Patel is saying.
Meanwhile, the Education Minister responded that over 65,000 smart classrooms have been built by the state government and another 43,000 are under construction.
He claimed that under the Mission Schools of Excellence project, the government has built 15,000 classrooms in 2023-24 and construction for another 15,000 classrooms is progressing. Besides, more than 5,000 computer labs have been constructed and work is advancing for the creation of 15,000 more such labs in schools, he added.
The minister then said that the dropout ratio in primary schools reduced from 37.22 per cent to 2.68 per cent in 2022-23 due to government”s efforts.
“To ensure quality education in schools, a total of 22,349 Vidya Sahayak and Gyan Sahayak (contractual teachers) have been appointed in the year 2023-24. For the year 2024-25, more than ₹ 2,785 crore has been allocated for the upgradation of primary schools under the Mission Schools of Excellence,” NDTV quotes as the Minister is saying.
