One third students of merged schools drop out, says study

JAIPUR: The Rajkiya Prathamik Vidhalaya Ganpati Nagar in Hasanpura had 45 girl students until the school was merged with Rajkiya Madhyamik School which resulted into drop out of all the girls. Similar is the situation in four other city elementary schools which saw 100% dropouts after the school was merged with other schools.
A study conducted by the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti in Rajasthan in association with interns of PUCL Jaipur finds that these five schools were located in Muslim- and dalit-dominated areas and were shifted to far-off areas creating an "ideal situation" for dropping out.
"The merger of schools located in areas inhabited minorities with those in areas with majority Hindu locals resulted in many of minority community children not going to school. Of the five merged schools which witnessed 100% dropouts, three were located in minority areas," said Komal Srivastava of Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti.
They carried out the study in 71 schools of Jaipur which had 9,399 children enrolled at the time of admission. Post merger, one third of the children had stopped coming to the schools. The findings say that 14 schools have 90%-100% students not attending classes. In four schools, up to 90% students are not attending classes and in two schools only 50% students were attending classes.
The study says that schools being run in dalit localities were merged with those being run in the localities dominated by upper or dominant castes. The level of discrimination and fear is such that the dalit children were discouraged from going to schools.
The Rajkiya Prathamik Vidhalaya in Champa Nagar which is dominated by the dalit community was merged with Devari School, 3 km away and located in upper caste community area. The result is that 90% of the children stopped attending school. For instance, a school in Kalbeliya ki Dhani was merged with another school in Khatipura (Jagatpura) which is a Meena-dominated locality. As a result, all 23 children of Kalbeliya School have stopped going to school.
Further, the study finds that in nine schools, children have stopped coming because the distance is more than one km. Most of the children in these schools are from poor families and commutes to school on foot. The distance of up to 4 km has made it impossible for students walk that far. The government upper primary school in Parvati Nagar was aksi merged with the government upper primary school in Baba Ram Dev Nagar in Gujjar Ki Thadi which has a distance of over 4 km.