By Admin 
Recently, during the budget session in the Lok Sabha, a big question was raised regarding the closure of government schools. Congress MP from Bihar Dr Mohammad Javed and MP from Rajasthan Bhajan Lal Jatav asked Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, ‘Does the government know how many government schools have been closed or abolished across the country in the last five years? How many schools were closed state-wise and union territories? What were the reasons for closing these schools? It should also be told that how many children have left studies due to these closed schools?
MPs said this
Both the MPs said that due to closure of government schools, the education of children of poor and rural areas is being adversely affected. They wanted the government to give complete information on this and tell what steps are being taken in this direction.
Education Minister said this
While replying in the House, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that education comes in the concurrent list in the Constitution of India. This means that opening, closing or merging schools (rationalization) rests primarily in the hands of state governments and union territory administrations. The central government does not take direct decisions in this. He said that under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 (RTE Act), it is necessary to provide primary education (class 1 to 5) to every child near his home or in his neighbourhood. According to Section 6 of RTE, all the states have fixed the distance and standards of their neighborhood schools. Section 8 says that it is the duty of the state government to provide free and compulsory education to every child and to have a school.
Dharmendra Pradhan gave these figures
The Education Minister said that the government is concerned about the availability of schools and a lot of work has been done in this direction. He cited data from UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education Plus). Let us tell you that UDISE+ is a reliable system for collecting school education data. According to this, access to schools in the country has improved significantly. It is measured by Gross Access Ratio (GAR). GAR means the percentage of villages or hamlets in an area that have school availability within the prescribed standards.
Such are the statistics of schools
- Primary Level (Class 1-5): It was 97.15% in 2018-19, which increased to 97.83% in 2024-25.
- Upper Primary Level (Class 6-8): 96.49% in 2018-19, 96.57% in 2024-25.
- Secondary Level (Class 9-10): It was 88.24% in 2018-19, which has increased to 95.35% in 2024-25.
- Higher Secondary Level (Class 11-12): In 2018-19 it was 65.05%. It will increase to 94.97% in 2024-25.
These figures show that access to schools is continuously improving at various levels. Besides, the dropout rate (school leaving rate) has also decreased.
Such decisions are made for children
Dharmendra Pradhan stressed that any school can be closed or merged only by following the rules of RTE Act. If a school is closed, it is ensured that the education of the children is not affected and they are sent to another nearby school. The central government provides assistance to the states under the Samagra Shiksha Yojana, so that schools are better, teachers are available and children do not leave school.
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