Why is govt. primary school enrolment falling?
The falling rate of enrolment in government primary schools across the country should be a cause for worry, given the stress on education at this level, although the number of schools has increased during this time, according to a Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) study. For example, a primary school in Manikganj has only one student in Grade II. We learnt about another school in Patuakhali recently which has over 100 students but is running with only one teacher. The DPE data has revealed that there are thousands of primary schools where there is no standard teacher-student ratio and many of these schools are running with only one teacher.
Many educationists believe that government primary schools are losing students because of the rising educational cost and the lower standard of education. Although we have achieved 97 percent enrolment rate in primary schools, ensuring quality education in these schools still remains a far cry. And sadly, a large number of children don't learn how to read and write even after completing primary education.
Shortage of teachers in primary schools is an age-old problem which has never been addressed properly by the government. And the existing teachers in the schools have hardly been provided with any training. Moreover, many of the primary school teachers do not get salaries for months on end. In addition, many of the schools lack proper infrastructure and there is a lack of transparency in the use of government funds. Needless to say, ensuring quality education is the only way to keep the students at schools, and to do so, these issues must be addressed with due importance.
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