Jamtikra: Both the state and Central government have been spending crores to ensure good education in all public schools. But the government fails to ensure quality education in Attabira block under Bargarh district.
The Union government may have made right to education a fundamental right by bringing into force the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009, but the government schools in Attabira block are lagging far behind in providing quality education.
As a result, enrolment of students in private schools has been increasing day by day.
Parents said when children in rural areas walk to school with the expectation of quality education they may encounter a different scenario. Either they drop out due to family pressures or lag behind private school-educated students.
The rural parents who want to give their children quality education and teach their children the necessary skills for an ever-changing world, they are choosing private school education in urban areas.
One of the accepted benefits of private schools is that they provide exceptional and challenging education experience through extracurricular activities, advanced placement courses, etc. Even though the private schools are expensive, parents prefer them as they hold out the hope of bright future for children.
While the pass percentage in government high schools in matriculation examination has been declining, the private schools’ performance is better.
Though the government has been providing mid-day meal, school uniforms, bi-cycles and stipend to the students in Attabira block, the block level review about the success of these programmes has not been conducted yet.
Frequent change in the syllabus at primary level hampers the children’s studies. The tutorial ability of trained teachers in the government schools is very poor. As they fail to complete the course in time, more than 80% students take private tuitions.
Students of private schools in the block have succeeded in gaining more than 90% in the Board of Secondary Education examination this year. All these have raised questions about the education systems of public schools.
According to Attabira Block Education Officer, “There is no problem in the education system of public schools. It is only the mindset of parents that they send their students to private school.”
Attabira Block Education Officer Rajaram Meher said, the parents are bound to send their students to private schools because the education system of the state government is in very bad condition.
According to Rabindra Danta, a retired headmaster, “I am sending my daughter to the government school. The government is providing every facility to the students. But the quality of education is very poor in these schools. The teachers are not coming regularly to the schools. All these adversely affect the future of the students.”
Ranjan Thakur, a parent in Attabira, said: “My daughter studies in the government school. It is the negligence of the teachers which ruined the education system in government schools.”
PNN