Tripura may close down schools with less students

A Correspondent

Agartala, Aug 1 : Tripura Government is considering a proposal to close down some of the schools where the number of students is very less. The proposal is being considered after the new Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath undertook a programme of random visits to schools to verify their conditions.

During the visit, the Minister found that in some schools the number of students is less than even 20 while 5 to 10 teachers are being posted in the school while some nearby school with high number of students is suffering due to inadequate strength of teachers. Ram Nagar Girls School and Dr Ambedkar Memorial School at Joynagar, in the periphery of Agartala town, actually acted as eye opener. In joynagar school there is a teacher for every seven student and the condition of the Dr. Ambedkar School also is almost similar.

Most notably, on many days in every month no class is held in these schools as attendance of students remain very less or nil. What surprised the Minister most is that these schools never sing the National Anthem which is a mandatory provision. Against this backdrop, the Minister found that in the nearby schools classes were not held due to shortage of teachers. After visiting a good number of schools, the Minister told the reporters that such imbalance was created during the previous government.