106 govt primary schools shut down for want of student (Goa News)

106 govt primary schools shut down for want of students PANAJI: The increasing rural-to-urban intra migration in the state as well as desire on the part of parents to opt for government-aided city schools as preferred over the government village schools, has resulted in the closure of 105 government primary schools, besides one government primary and middle school, and one government middle school. Coming out with the latest related figures, the director of education Anil Powar said that the government has taken the decision to close these primary schools due to a single reason and that is nil enrolment in the said educational institutions. “There is absolutely no other reason for closing down these government primary schools,” he reiterated, stating that these schools had both, good infrastructure as well as required number of teachers. The areas of these 107 schools ranged from 17,775 square metres to 75 square metres and they had one to nine rooms available for conducting classes. It may be recalled that the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, during the budget session of the state assembly had informed that Goa is facing the problem of low enrolment in over 268 government primary schools and further given details of the total number of students in each of these schools. The inventory of closed government primary, secondary and higher secondary schools around Goa released by the department of education provides taluka-wise information. Incidentally, no government secondary or higher secondary school has been closed. The inventory informs that 15 government primary schools, besides one government middle school in Halarn village have been closed in Pernem taluka. It also states that five government primary schools, besides one government primary and middle school in Velguem village have been shut down in Bicholim taluka. The number of government primary schools shut down in other places include 7 in Bardez taluka, 4 in Sattari, 7 in Tiswadi, 17 in Ponda, 3 in Sanguem, 14 in Quepem, 6 in Canacona and 3 in Mormugao taluka. Salcete taluka has the highest number of 24 government primary schools, which have been shut down. An analysis of the locations of the abovementioned government primary schools reveals that most of these schools are in interior villages like say Virnoda, Bodgul, Porascade and Varkhand in Pernem taluka; Dongurli, Assode, Cotorem and Tulshimala in Sattari taluka; Durbhat, Nirankal and Agapur in Ponda taluka; and Carmona, Paroda, Ambelim, and Rassaim in Salcete taluka, among others. Altogether six government primary schools have been closed in Shiroda village in Ponda taluka, while in all, five such schools have faced closure in the Mandrem village in Pernem taluka. Most of the schools, which have faced shutters, had been conducting classes with Marathi as the medium of instruction. However, this is natural if one takes into account the number of Marathi and Konkani medium government primary schools existing in the state. Prior to the recent closure of 106 government primary schools out of the total 900-odd government primary schools in the state, 800-odd schools offered Marathi as the medium of instruction while just above 60 schools had Konkani as their medium of instruction. NT Network Goa News http://www.goanewsonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14846:106-govt-primary-schools-shut-down-for-want-of-students&catid=35:local&Itemid=55