Some reports have surfaced in the media recently suggesting disturbing decline in enrolment of government schools in Jammu and Kashmir. While comparing the date of Unified District Information System For Education (UDISE) for 2022-23 and 2023-24, it has been pointed out that there has been a decline in the enrolment of students by 61,451 in one year and this decline has been identified in 554 schools across J&K.
Over the past few years The School Education Department has been launching enrolment drives every year to bring in out-of-school students and students from underprivileged sections to schools through initiatives like ‘Aao School Chalen’, ‘Dastak’ and ‘Talaash’. As the process of identifying out of school children is nearing completion, one would expect that all such children are admitted in the schools and equipped with better education. Despite the drives, the decline in enrolment is alarming and the government as well as the society should take the issue seriously.
For any society to progress on all fronts, proper education to its children is the key. It is the education that helps a child to become a responsible, creative, innovative and productive citizen who can lead her/his society and nation to a better future. The schools are a perfect medium to ignite the engine of development and the economic growth that is why in developed countries, the government’s focus more on this sector. The UT administration, in the backdrop of recent reports regarding enrolment, should focus on the issue and try to find out reasons behind this decline. Sometime back, the UT administration had launched TALAASH App for mainstreaming out-of-school children. In the wake of declining enrolment, the administration should look into it that the App is actually being operated by the experts.
Besides, the administration should ensure that all the schools are maintaining academic standards, empowering young students to develop experimental skills, exposing them to exciting innovations. Gone are the days when focus of education was about reading, writing and arithmetic. With modern times have emerged modern educational policies and methods. The education is for overall development of a child besides skill development so that after schooling they don’t face difficulties in adjusting in the society and contributing to it. National Education Policy (NEP) has already been set in motion and its implementation in letter and spirit is going to revolutionise the education sector all over, J&K being no exception.
