“Improvement is though noticeable in the curriculum and teaching practices but emphasis is being laid on developing reading and writing skills without any focus on holistic education.”
For educational empowerment of youth the focus has to be on quality education equally both in government and as well as p schools. Unfortunately quality education in government run schools has become an issue of grave concern for both the educationists and as well as the people in Jammu & Kashmir. Unfortunately a rural-urban divide in education, in terms of facilities and quality is the issue was left unattended by the successive popular governments in Jammu & Kashmir. The performance of government schools as such has not been as impressive as it should have been. The performance of schools even in board examination has been very dismal and deserves immediate attention and intervention of the school education department. While the infrastructure in government schools is not being upgraded the way it should have been, Poorly maintained buildings, dilapidated classrooms, ill-equipped libraries and laboratories, lack of sanitation facilities and even drinking water availability fast reduce the interests of parents in enrollments of their wards at Government schools. Improvement is though noticeable in the curriculum and teaching practices but emphasis is being laid on developing reading and writing skills without any focus on holistic education. These factors, coupled with other social circumstances have led to alarmingly high dropout rates in recent years despite an intense enrollment drive by Government schools across Jammu & Kashmir.
“While the fact remains that adequate number of elementary schools should be at a “reasonable distance from habitations”, the government can’t refute the reports that initiatives are yet to taken to shift schools from inaccessible to accessible places. Schools have been clubbed in recent years to increase the enrollments in most of the rural areas in Jammu & Kashmir but the suitability of the location of the schools is one major cause for the low enrollments at Government schools. The location and the condition of the school buildings matters more than the availability of teaching staff and infrastructural facilities for the growth and development of primary education at Government schools”.
It is also a fact that most of government schools in remote rural areas run from rented building are inaccessible to students in remote rural areas in both Kashmir valley and as well as Jammu division. While the work on buildings for such schools has been started years ago but are yet to be completed for one or the other reason, the strict adherence for completion of government buildings in given timelines would have led to shifting of such schools years ago. While the fact remains that adequate number of elementary schools should be at a “reasonable distance from habitations”, the government can’t refute the reports that initiatives are yet to taken to shift schools from inaccessible to accessible places. Schools have been clubbed in recent years to increase the enrollments in most of the rural areas in Jammu & Kashmir but the suitability of the location of the schools is one major cause for the low enrollments at Government schools. The location and the condition of the school buildings matters more than the availability of teaching staff and infrastructural facilities for the growth and development of primary education at Government schools
