the goan I network
MAPUSA
Maintaining that government will not allow permission for new schools in the State, Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday informed the Legislative Assembly that government would consider neighbourhood school complex concept for future grant-in-aid to schools.
The chief minister also said that government will not permit new DEd and BEd schools as they were already excessive.
“There is no scope for more schools. This year we have given permission to only two or three schools because of the distance. But nobody should think that we are closing down government schools,” Parrikar said.
The chief minister who is also the education minister was responding to demands for grants in education department.
The CM said government will give more weight to schools that adopt the neighbourhood school complex concept.
“There is no question of shutting down schools. Govt will link future grant-in-aid if schools adopt and follow the concept of neighbourhood school complex,” he said.
Parrikar said there was no perceptible drop in the number of students in the government primary and secondary schools as mentioned by some legislators during the debate in the House.
“On the contrary, the number of students in government schools have stabilised and are within 20,000 to 21,000. There is no much decrease. Only 300 students may have come down. We expect the number to go up in the following years,” he said.
He further said that even after registering a drop in number of classes, the student number was rising.
“One of the reasons for increase of the students is because government results were better. It shows government schools are on par or doing better than private schools in certain areas,” he said.
The chief minister said the government has not failed in providing required infrastructure to government school and spent almost Rs 86 crore on school infra.
He said the observation that admission in science stream was dropping was based on a false premise and without making proper study on the issue.
“In 2014 around 3,017 students appeared in class 12th, in 2016 that figure went up to 5,728. In this year the figure is above 5,500. So the increase in science is almost above 3,000,” he said.
Parrikar said government will not permit more DEd and BEd schools as the number was already excessive.
“DEd and BEd is a specialised education and cannot be just given because someone is asking for it,” he said.
The CM said the government has decided to amend the laptop scheme to make it available to the students.
“We are discussing the issue of logistics and maintenance and based on the inputs the scheme will be worked out,” he said.
He also said there was no scope to increase funds for mid-day meals and self -help groups will have to provide quality meals within the present frame work.
