Meghalaya has too many schools: Study

Representative image. The study also said Meghalaya has a skewed distribution of higher education institutes.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

The department’s study report, released on Friday, said the State has 14,582 schools, which is “disproportionately large” when its population of 29,66,889 is taken into account. Data from other States were compared with Meghalaya’s to come to a conclusion.

For instance, Manipur has 4,617 schools for 25,70,390 people, Tripura has 4,929 schools for 36,73,917 people, and Himachal Pradesh, with a more challenging topography than Meghalaya, has 17,826 schools serving a population of 68.64 lakh.

According to the study, Kerala has only 1,282 more schools than Meghalaya despite having an 11 times larger population of 3.34 crore. The study was based on the 2011 Census.

One of the study’s key findings was that Meghalaya has 206 schools with zero enrolment and 2,269 schools with fewer than 10 students. Moreover, 29% of the State’s schools are government-aided, “unusually” higher than the national average of 5%.

“One reason for the large number of schools is that a single school is often counted multiple times in the data. This occurs when a private school seeks multiple grants from the government. For example, a school may be counted as four separate schools (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Ad hoc, Deficit, and Private), even though it is managed and owned by a single entity,” the study said.

The State’s Education Commissioner and Secretary, Vijay Kumar Mantri, did not rule out the possibility of Meghalaya going the Assam way of merging schools with zero or low enrolment. “A decision would be taken by the end of February,” he said.

The study also said Meghalaya has a skewed distribution of higher education institutes. The East Khasi Hills district has 47 such institutes while the West Garo Hills district has 15 followed by Ri-Bhoi with 10 and West Jaintia Hills with seven.

There are three higher educational institutes each in the Eastern West Khasi Hills, South West Garo Hills, and West Khasi Hills, two each in East Garo Hills and South West Khasi Hills, and one each in East Jaintia Hills, North Garo Hills, and South Garo Hills districts.