What a waste
Governments the world over are considering various options where the state exchequer is not allowed to let resources go down the drain. The economies where financial discipline and monitored spending is ensured are as such performing better with the scope increasing for further betterment.
However, there are sectors where the state is made to spend in a callous manner making the hard earned resources go waste without achieving any objective or betterment.
One such case that has come to fore is that around 8,000 schools across the country reported zero enrolments during the 2024-25 academic session, with West Bengal accounting for most such schools, followed by Telangana.
The schools being with zero enrolment means that 20,817 teachers who were employed in these schools with zero enrolments are still being paid their wages. In a peculiar case, West Bengal accounted for 17,965 such teachers, along with the highest number of schools without enrolments (3,812).
According to the Ministry of Education’s statistics, 7,993 schools had zero enrolments, down by over 5,000 from the previous year’s count of 12,954.
Interestingly, states and UT’s where the administration proved a bit careful, no such cases were reported and these included Haryana, Maharashtra, Goa, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura-which reported no such schools.
Besides, there were no schools with zero enrolment in the Union Territories of Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu, and Chandigarh. Delhi also had no schools with zero enrolments.
Notably, school education is a state subject and states have been advised to address the issue of zero enrolments in schools. Some states have merged some schools for optimum utilisation of resources such as infrastructure as well as staff while as others too are contemplating action in this regard.
However, what seems concerning is that lot of time is being wasted to streamline the system where maximum utilisation of staff and infrastructure could have been ensured thus saving the state exchequer from wasting its resources.
The governments across the country need to stress on timely school mergers. The States need to merge schools with zero enrolments with nearby schools to optimize resources, including infrastructure and staff.
Besides, teachers from schools with zero enrolments can be redeployed to schools with low teacher-student ratios or to subjects where there is a shortage of teachers. This should be ensured within a stipulated time frame so that the state’s resources are best utilised and the education sector can move forward on various other important reforms that are needed in the sector.
