Low Enrolment Forcing Tripura to Consider Scraping Science and Commerce Streams in Schools
The schools which will be identified in the survey will see the end of Science and Commerce stream and the students along with the staff will be shifted to nearby schools.
The Government of Tripura has started putting some serious thoughts on removing Science and Commerce streams in schools owing to low enrolment in these streams. The Government has started conducting a survey through which it wants to identify those schools where less number of students enrol themselves in these two streams, particularly in the plus 2 levels.
According to Ratan Lal Nath, the Education Minister of Tripura, there are believed to be some schools in the state where the number of teachers in the Science stream is more compared to the number of students. The District Education Officers (DEOs) have already been approached by the government and have been asked to conduct surveys of the schools in their area to identify those schools where the number of students in the Science stream is less.
Once identified, the DEOs will discuss this issue with the local elected public representatives and School Management Committees (SMCs) to discuss the possibility of shifting the students to adjacent schools.
A similar approach for schools with a low student ratio in the Commerce stream at the plus 2 levels will be taken.
Also Read: Check out how the class XIIth Science, Commerce and Arts students fared in the 2020 exams
Manik Sarkar, the former Chief Minister of Tripura came out blazing hot while speaking against the move. During an interview with the local channel, Sarkar pointed towards the policy of their Government which focussed more on providing exposure to students, even from the distant tribal areas, to science education. In reply, Ratan Nath put forth some stats stating the number of schools which were shut down during the Left Government as a result of zero enrolments as compared to the current government. The current government has only shut down 11 schools while the previous government had shut down 28.
No decision has yet been made regarding this issue by the state government. However, such schools cannot open the process for fresh intakes in these two streams at the 10+2 level.
There are a total of 4,398 government and government-aided schools in the state currently in addition to 335 private schools where around 5 lakh students are receiving their education at all levels. As per a new report, the government spends 2,138 rupees per annum per student at the primary level and 7,600 rupees per annum per student at the elementary level.