Thiruvananthapuram: The government does not appear to have learnt its lesson although the number of schools that have become uneconomic to run have increased from 4,614 in 2011-12 to 5,137 in 2012-13. None of them are higher secondary schools , however. But its feared that if more of them continue to be sanctioned without scientific study many of the higher secondary schools too could turn uneconomic to run.
Schools with less than 25 students in a class are classified as uneconomic and have more teachers than they need. A number of their teachers are therefore listed as “protected”.
Interestingly, there are 2,577 schools with less than 50 students in all classes put together in the state. These include 1,217 government and 1,360 aided schools.
The highest number (502) of uneconomic schools are in Pathanamthitta , followed by Kozhikode ( 499) and Kottayam ( 486). In fact, there are seven lower primary schools in the state which don’t have even one student each , four schools have only one student each on their rolls and 109 have less than 10 students each.
Of the uneconomic schools, 4075 are lower primary schools, 857 are upper primary schools and 205 are high schools.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had told reporters recently that a decision would soon be taken on whether or not to continue running schools with less than 10 students.
But the government believes the managements and Parent Teachers Association (PTA) of schools with less than 25 students should try to enroll more of them, to keep them running.
