RTI reveals alarmingly low enrollment in government schools in Puducherry
15 Jul, 2013The reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that the government primary schools in the union territory of Puducherry are running with extremely low students’ strength.
The reply to the application states that 31 schools in Puducherry have no student from class III to class V, 11 schools have a strength of less than 10 students, and 50 schools have less than 50 children. For Karaikal, the reply states that 17 schools have no student from class III to class V, seven schools have less than ten students and 36 schools have less than 50 students.
The reply also shows that the Tamil medium schools in the union territory are also facing the similar fate. One school in Puducherry has only nine students and another one has only eleven students with no student in four of the classes.
However, English medium schools are doing quite good with most of them having over 200 students. One of the factors responsible for this is that the government has started a new scheme in compliance with the recommendation of sixth pay commission under which up to Rs. 15,000 is paid to government employees per annum towards tuition fee of two wards following which even the lower and middle class started admitting their children in English medium private schools.