Denotified summer closing schools with zero enrolment may be reopened

As many as 286 primary and middle summer closing schools with zero student enrollment are likely to reopen. This was announced by the state government during the budget session of the Himachal Pradesh assembly while replying to a cut motion from a BJP member. Education Minister Rohit Thakur said that the matter being discussed in the council of ministers meeting is considering opening summer schools and closing schools that were closed due to low enrollment. The government also stated in the Assembly on March 29 that educational institutions would be opened on the basis of requirements. The minister informed us that 455 schools in the state are running without a teacher, and 3,145 schools are functioning with a lone teacher, as a result of which the state registered a steep decline and was pushed to 11th place in education. The minister said that the focus would now be on quality education instead of opening educational institutions. Minister Justifying the denotification of 23 colleges, he stated that only two colleges were opened in four years, while the remaining 23 colleges were opened in the last six months, and that thousands of teacher positions are vacant. BJP MLA Randhir Sharma, seeking to continue educational institutions denotified by the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government on February 11, said there are several villages not connected by road, and due to the rising trend of drug misuse, parents are wary of sending their wards to school. Therefore, there is a need to open schools at the doorstep. Adding more, he said Sarkaghat College, which has an enrollment of forty students, has also been de-notified. In this context, another BJP MLA, Jeet Ram Katwal, demanded that the de-notified schools be reopened.