JK Govt Closes 4400 Schools Due To Low Enrollment Merges With Nearby Schools

JK Govt Closes 4400 Schools Due To Low Enrollment Merges With Nearby Schools

Ashiq Butt | July 11, 2024 | 08:50 AM IST | Educational News, Jammu Kashmir | Follow on Google News

JK Govt Closes 4400 Schools Due To Low Enrollment Merges With Nearby Schools

JK Govt Closes 4400 Schools Due To Low Enrollment Merges With Nearby Schools

In a significant move, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has closed nearly 4,400 government-run schools due to zero or extremely low student enrollment.

Official documents indicate that out of 23,117 government-run schools in the region, 4,394 have been removed from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) data.

Impact on Primary Education

An official stated that the overall number of public schools in Jammu and Kashmir has decreased because several schools with minimal or no student enrollment were merged with nearby public schools.

The primary schools category has been particularly affected, with the number of government primary schools reducing by almost 30 percent.

Initially, there were 12,977 primary schools, but post-merger, only 8,966 remain operational. Additionally, 392 government middle schools, three high schools, and one higher secondary school have been deleted from the UDISE+ list.

Reduction in Overall School Count

The official figures also show a reduction in private and other schools. Out of a total of 5,688 such educational institutes, only 5,555 are currently functional.

Overall, Jammu and Kashmir previously had 28,805 government and private schools combined, but the count has now decreased to 24,279 schools.

The School Education Department had earlier identified more than 1,200 government schools with low student enrollment, which were likely to be merged based on catchment areas and student feasibility.

Previous Mergers and Future Plans

In April 2022, the School Education Department announced its plan to merge 720 government-run schools in Jammu and Kashmir due to inadequate student enrollment. This merger is part of the ongoing efforts to optimize resources and improve the quality of education by consolidating schools with low enrollment.

The closure and merging of these schools aim to address the issue of resource allocation and ensure that students receive a better quality of education in adequately staffed and well-resourced institutions.

Ashiq Butt

Ashiq Butt – is VoM News's senior staffer worked since year 2015 and he deals with correspondency and social media handles. Hailing from Doda's Marmat, Ashiq has strong grip over the collection of the data and it's compiling feature.