New trend in Gujarat sees over 3 lakh students shifting from private to govt schools

Owing to the better facilities available at Gujarat public schools, many private school students are making a shift towards it. Gujarat government school’s improved quality of education and state of art facilities is acting as an attraction for these students. Locals also agreed that the quality of education in public schools has considerably improved in the past few years.

As per the number obtained from the Government of Gujarat’s Primary Education Department, such shifts of students from private to government schools across the state in 2018-19 was 33,822 and in 2019-20 was 31,382 respectively.

"We have had a considerably good increase in the shift from private to government schools. Due to the improving facilities in government schools, this year, six private schools have to be shut down. On the other side, we have received 3,300 admissions of students who were earlier studying in private schools and it is expected that this number will reach at least 4,000." Sanjay Parmar, Banaskantha district primary education officer said. 

The officer continued to inform that in the last few years there has been a considerable shift from private schools to public schools. This year, six private schools had to close down due to the upgraded facilities at public schools. On the other hand, 3,300 children who had previously attended private schools have been admitted to government ones, and it is anticipated that this number will eventually reach at least 4,000. Furthermore, the officer informed, that there are 2,352 government schools in the district where about 3.50 lakh students are studying. 

Why this shift? - Mission School Of Excellence 

A Major reason for this shift is the Gujarat Education Ministry’s programme ‘Mission School of Excellence’, an endeavour that strives to raise the state's educational standards. The Gujarat state government intends to invest Rs 10,000 crore over the following five years in this effort. The programme aims at providing better facilities in the schools. 

Other than the top priority of quality education, the government is making sure of well-qualified staff, scholarships to meritorious students, mid-day meals as well as digital classrooms, science laboratories, a library, and a swimming pool. 

A student Aksha, who recently made a shift from private to government school said, she likes the teachers and the availability f digital classrooms 

"I like it here as the way of teaching is very nice. All the teachers teach us with love and we also study some subjects in the digital classrooms."

(with inputs from ANI)