More than 3,700 seats in 74 adarsha vidyalayas in the state are lying vacant allegedly due to poor infrastructure and negative perception of people towards government schools.
This year the adarsha vidyalayas (model schools) have recorded only 79 per cent enrollment. Out of the 17,760 seats available, 14,037 students have enrolled into classes VI, VII and VIII this year. As a result 915 seats in Class VI, 1,434 seats in Class VII and 1,374 seats in Class VIII are vacant. Model schools, which were started in 2009, have a capacity to accommodate 80 students in each class.
Prabhakara, joint director of Rashtriya Madhyamika Shikshana Abhiyan (RMSA), a nodal agency responsible for universalisation of secondary education, attributed the shortfall to the perception that government schools provide ‘mediocre’ quality of education. “One of the main reasons is the perception that English medium does not work in government schools. We are working hard to remove this stigma attached to our schools, and we want to do this by our achievements,” he said.
“Another possible reason would be delay in starting civil works. It would be wrong to say that all 74 model schools have up-to-date infrastructure,” said Prabhakara. However, RMSA’s proposed budget of around `400 crore for the present academic year does not include expenditure for civil work as the agency has leftover funds.
The RMSA has requested the MHRD to set up more model schools in the state. Model schools seem to have worked in districts such as Bagalkot, where the percentage of enrollment is 91 per cent with 1,313 students. In Gulbarga, the percentage is 85 per cent with 1,227 students.
Prabhakara believes that model schools provide the much-needed opportunity for students to perform at par with students from non-government schools. “In my opinion, the state needs at least 300 model schools in order to provide children the right amount of opportunity,” he added.
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