Zilla Parishad

Palghar

Raj Dasoni

The Palgharwill be downing the shutter of its 123 schools, as the government has decided to merge schools with less than 30 students on its rolls.Around 2440 students from these 123 schools will be shifted to a nearby school within a kilometres range. The Zilla Parishad (ZP) also couldn’t fill around 665 vacant teachers’ post and probably this merger will ease up a bit of that pressure.Post shut down, the existing school premises would be used as community halls, warehouses, government offices, etc. In fact theZP CEO said that around eight of her department offices are on rental basis. Activists though feel that, in spite of searching for reasons for low numbers in the school and attempting to increase them, the government has gone ahead with such mergers.Palghar ZP CEO Nidhi Choudhary says, “It is not a closure of schools, but a merger. They would be merged with nearby ZP schools within the 1-km periphery. Underutilization of available resources is the main reason for the merger. 568 ZP schools have less than 30 students from class one to class five but we are merging only 123 schools as they have another ZP school in the 1-km periphery. Students learn more in groups and if there are only four-five students in a class then quality educations becomes difficult.""The school premises which are near to the Palghar headquarters can be used for various purposes like gram sabha hall, mahila gram sabha hall, meetings for self-help groups, quarters for staying purpose, storerooms and warehouses, different kind of offices, etc. We also have a vacancy of 665 teachers and with this merger we get 229 teachers from these 123 school who can be adjusted where vacancy is there," she adds.RTI and social activistsaid, "Instead of closing down schools the government should try to be at par with the private schools to increase the number. The infrastructure is not at par with that of private schools. With such a decision, the parents will send their children to a nearby private school than make them travel everyday."The process of transferring students has already started from July 15 and by month-end all the students would be transferred to a nearby school, confirms a source.