Govt primary schools not shut, forced to close as parents opt for city schools: CM

Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday, said that the state govt does not want to shut any govt primary schools but is forced to close them due to parents choosing to admit children to urban and aided-schools.The state will soon complete the process of teacher recruitment, and it will be ensured that each school will at least have three to four teachers, hinting at resolving the issue of single-teacher govt primary schools, he said during his online interaction with school teachers and students.“Many are alleging that we have shut down Marathi govt primary schools. We have renovated and rebuilt many govt primary schools.

We didn’t shut any school. It is due to parents wanting their children in city schools or aided-schools that we don’t have children in some govt primary schools. When student numbers were not there, they had to be shut. Govt does not want to close any school. Yes, we have merged some schools which are located close to one another, so they can get the benefit of two to three teachers,” said Sawant, who also holds the education portfolio.

He said that where some govt primary schools are shutting, there are also others which are asking for permissions to start Class V and VI and have an attached high school. “Due to the Teacher Eligibility Test, teacher recruitment was stuck. Our teacher recruitment process will be completed soon. We will give three to four teachers to each school,” said Sawant.The CM said that govt is also in the process of framing a new scheme to replace old Balrath school buses.

He, however, warned school managements that the provided buses should not be used to transport students to the school beyond a 3km radius. “All school managements should know that the buses are not to bring students from 15km away. We will formulate a scheme soon and give new Balrath buses to the schools that have old buses,” said Sawant.He said that the value education programme introduced as ‘Mulya Vardhan’ in Goa schools along with Shantilal Mukta Foundation has helped reach 80,000 students up to Class VIII over the last six years in 450 schools and trained over 2,700 teachers. Sawant said that the new topics of waste management, personal hygiene, road safety and yoga have been added as part of the programme.He said that with three to four accidents taking place in Goa with at least one fatality each day, the road safety module will ensure that the state roads are safer in the future with more responsible road users.