83% government schools in the state have less than 60 students

Students going to school (representative image) credits: Wiki Media Commons 

By :Shalini Thakur

Dharamshala: The number of government schools with less than 60 students is increasing in the state for the last decade, reveals the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018 brought out by Pratham, an NGO working to improve quality of education.  According to the report, 58.1% government schools in the state had less than 60 students in 2009, now the figure stands at 83.1%.

“In our school there are 50 students at present and there are only two teachers. The strength was the same last year too. But earlier, we used to have more than 70 students, “says Anjana Kumari, a Para Assistant teacher in government school, Khaniyara.

According to ASER 2018, the enrollment of students between the age group of 6 to 15 in private schools in the state marked more than two percent increase between 2016 and 2018. At national level the corresponding rise for the period is just 0.03%.

“I am a former student of this school which started in 1927. At that time it used to be at its best”, says Vijay Kumar, who heads the Government Primary School in Khaniyara. “But now things have changed, children at three are going to play schools, LKG,UKG and everybody prefers private schools, “ he adds.

"Quality of education won't be improved just by yielding infrastructure to schools" says Naveen Bhandari, Principal of Government Senior Secondary School at Khaniyara Khas, Dharamshala. He thinks that the debate over the comparative quality of education imparted by private and government educational institutions will never come to an end.

"Being a father, i want my son to get good education. He is studying in a private school because I know the conditions of government schools. In my school itself, there are no recruitments of teachers for the past one year,” he says.

However, not everything is hunky-dory with private schools in the state as per the figures released. For instance, the percentage growth in students in the 8th standard who can do division was 4.3 between 2016 and 2018 in government schools. But it fell by 5.1 percent in private schools in the state for the same period.

“The students who are weak in studies are usually removed from private schools. Sending them to our schools is the only option left with their parents,” says Anjana. Despite this, learning levels of students enrolled in government schools in the state shows improvement. Percentage of 5th standard students in government schools who can read at least a 2nd standard text was 65.3 in 2016, which improved to 74.5 in 2018. Corresponding figures for the private school students were 78 in 2016 and 80.4 in 2018. Proportion of students at 5th standard in government schools who can do division improved from 47.4% in 2016 to 51.5% in 2018. Corresponded figures for private schools were 63% and 64%.

What winds the Dharamshala commuters most?

(Representational Image)

By Shalini Thakur

Dharamshala: "I think public transport here in Dharamshala is painful. Why would you get on a  Bus that doesn't leave to wherever you want it to head to, doesn't start wherever you want it to start from, and doesn’t stop at where you want it to stop?”, says Preshita Thakur, a daily commuting student at CUHP,who has to travel from Gahlian, a small village near Ranital in Kangra.

There are 3906 villages in Kangra, most of which are not have proper bus services. Many villages have just a couple of buses plying to them daily. When they stops operations unexpectedly, due to bad weather or some other uncertain circumstances , people in these villages and students suffer. Other modes of public transport are not affordable for most.

 ”Buses are our principal mode of public transport to nearby places", says Kuldeep Chand(64), an old man who lives in Dari in the outskirts of Dharamshala with his family. However, bus rides are not always a pleasant experience for him. Bus drivers and conductors often behave rudely or use abusive language, complaints Kuldeep. Elderly people like Kuldeep who suffers from Arthritis and other ailments, finds it difficult to enter and exit a vehicle. "One day when I pleaded to a conductor to give some extra time to get down from the bus, he shouted at me", says Kuldeep.

 “The day I was about to hire a taxi to Indrunag, the taxi driver pitched a price of 300 Rupees, I was totally shocked," says Umang Arora who hails from Jalandhar, but presently stays in Dharamshala for her studies. Umang complaints that she has come across several taxi drivers in Dharamshala who demand exorbitant charges from their passengers.

However, taxi drivers in Dharamshala have their own woes to deal with. The daily rise in fuel prices has made a dent to their daily earnings. “It is difficult if the taxi is your only source of income” Kamlesh Kumar explains. Kamlesh Kumar is a local taxi driver in Dharamshala, who lives with his family in Garoh, a village nearby. He says it is a hard task to maintain a taxi in Dharamshala. "Honestly, the petrol prices affect us very much. Servicing and repairing the vehicle from time to time also affect us and it becomes very difficult to survive when you are the only source of income in your family," says Kamlesh.

People like Umang, who are from cities where app-based taxi services are ubiquitous, finds their absence in Dharamshala bizarre. “App-based taxis back home were very convenient as they can be availed at any time, at any route based on our convenience. Drivers can not demand excessive rates too”, she adds.