Department of education also proposes to provide buses of Kadamba Transport Corporation to these 168 schools so that the students, who would be admitted in schools located away from their home, may not have to walk long distances

NT NETWORK

PANAJI: The department of education has come out with a concept to amalgamate 262 primary schools into 168 schools as the number of students in them is less than the prescribed level.

This concept will result in closing down of altogether 94 schools. Goa has one of the highest percentages of single teacher schools in the country standing at 34 per cent.

The concept also proposes to provide buses of Kadamba Transport Corporation to these 168 schools so that the students, who would be admitted in schools located away from their home, may not have to walk long distances. A related meeting between the officials of the department of education and the Kadamba Transport Corporation was recently held.

It may be recalled that the government, during the past few academic years had tried to close down the schools having student strength of 15 or less. However, the objection from the parents of the students studying in these schools had prevented the then government from going for amalgamation of such schools.

According to the highly placed sources in the DoE, the government proposes to amalgamate the schools this academic year, and has given direction that students from the schools facing closure should not feel any discomfort if they are shifted to other schools.

The sources also informed that every school with poor student strength would be amalgamated with the school having adequate student strength and located within the 3 km area. They also stated that all facilities would be provided to these 168 schools including library and playground.

Meanwhile, the KTC officials have started the exercise of surveying the routes for running the buses, for the 168 schools. A KTC official mentioned that once these routes are marked the amalgamation process would start.