PANAJI
Thirty-five more government primary schools may soon be shut as they have got zero enrolment for the current academic year 2024-25.
With more and more number of State run schools getting closed annually, the Government has unofficially decided to freeze all new permissions to private institutions.
In the ongoing academic term, the Education Department has ordered closure of seven schools due to nil enrolment while there are close to 60 per cent government schools, of the total 687, where less than five students are studying in Class I to IV.
“The government schools are shutting down due to private schools located within its close proximity,” the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Thursday.
Sources informed that on an average 10-12 government primary schools are shut annually in the last ten years due to nil or poor enrolment.
“Considering the situation, the government has no options but to freeze granting permissions to new aided primary schools. In the last two years, close to 150 applications for new schools have been kept on hold or rejected by the government taking into account the feasibility report submitted by the education department,” sources said.
According to rules, there cannot be two primary schools within the radius of one to two kilometer while the three kms radius is for Secondary schools. “Goa has two-three primary schools serving in a radius of four or less kms. During the Medium of Instruction issue, the government had relaxed the distance criteria for Konkani and Marathi schools as a result of which the density of primary schools in close proximity increased,” sources said.
As per the information available, there are currently 687 functional government primary schools, with a total student enrolment of 4044 only. In a clear preference for privately managed government aided English medium schools, there are more than 10,000 students enrolled while another 3600 are in unaided privately managed schools.
