Chandigarh schools witness decline in enrolment ratio at all levels: Report

NEW DELHI: The Chandigarh schools saw a decline in gross enrolment ratio and net enrolment ratio at all levels for the session 2019-20, the Hindustan Times reported.

The Ministry of Education has asked the education department to examine the issue, as per the minutes, released recently, of a Project Approval Board (PAB) Meeting held in June to check the annual work plan and budget of Samagra Shiksha programme, the report said.

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According to the report, the PAB meeting was held under the chairpersonship of secretary school education and literacy from the Union ministry of education and various officers attended the meeting.

Examining the report under the appraisal issues and commitments for the 2021-2022 session, the HT report said that it was highlighted how gross enrolment ratio as well as net enrolment ratio in the 2019-20 session saw a downfall in comparison to 2018-19 at primary, upper primary, middle, secondary and higher secondary schools.

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The education ministry has said the state should focus on improving the gross enrolment ratio at all levels and find out the reasons for its decline and enhance the net enrolment rate by bringing children to the age-appropriate classes, the report said.

The PAB report also highlighted that the dropout rate of boys at the secondary level has increased from 4.7% in 2018-19 to 5.9% in 2019-20, the HT report stated.

Further, the report brought to notice that 996 posts in elementary and 274 posts in secondary government schools remain vacant which should be filled immediately.

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It also showed that in the 3-18 age group, around 3,681 children with special needs are not enrolled in schools and out of 45 vacant positions of faculty in SCERT, only 21 have been filled which should be taken care of, the report said.

The education department in its reply said in order to fix the dropout rate in the 2020-2021 session, no tuition fee was charged from those earning less than 1.5 LPA and other special categories. The department also said 412 JBT teachers and 155 TGTs had been recruited, as per the report.