Government rejects J&K government?s proposal of opening new schools and upgradation of existing primary schools

Updated on: Saturday, January 05, 2013

Stating that discrepancies galore in education department of Jammu and Kashmir, Government of India (GoI) has rejected J&K government’s proposal of opening new schools and upgradation of existing primary schools in the State.

It has asked the government to maintain actual data of un-served habitations and make 65 per cent schools sanctioned in 2011-12 fully operational.
“The plan for universal access and requirement of new schools proposed by J&K each year is entirely different and incongruent with the previous year,” read the observations made by Union Ministry of Human Resource development (HRD).

It said in Poonch district, where all habitations were provided with primary schools and access was 100 per cent last year, the State is demanding 77 primary schools without any explanation of deviation from last year’s status.
The report said around 65 per cent schools approved for primary education are likely not operational due to slow pace of civil works by State’s education department. “The pace of work in the State is slow despite flow of funds from GoI”.
“Due to lack of detailed location-wise plan and number of un-served habitations along with number of children, GoI did not approve State’s proposal for opening of 573 primary schools and upgradation of 285 Primary Schools (PS) to Upper Primary Schools (UPS). The schools sanctioned in the past are yet to be operationalised,” Union HRD Ministry informed J&K government.

Asking the government to plan need based interventions for access and quality of education, the union ministry said enrolment at primary level has declined by more than 5 per cent and about 3 per cent at upper primary level.

“In government schools, the decline is higher -- 7 % for PS and 5 % for UPS. The progress with regard to civil works and teacher recruitment is also abysmal. The government has also failed to submit the plan under the scheme of million plus city of Srinagar for special packages,” it said.

Expressing displeasure over poor administration of education department, the union HRD ministry said most of the trends in State are giving negative impression, which is not a good omen for achieving target of universalization of education.

“There is no official reliable data about enrolment of students and out of school children in State. Due to non availability of data there is a huge difficulty to achieve the targets” it said.

Terming it as matter of concern, the union HRD ministry revealed that Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalas (KGBVs) sanctioned in 2008-09 are yet to be constructed.
“The State has shown zero progress with respect to KGBV construction works in 2011-12, which is a matter of great concern. It has incurred only 38 per cent expenditure in KGBV component,” it added.

Government rejects J&K government?s proposal of opening new schools and upgradation of existing primary schools

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