PANAJI: The number of government elementary schools fell by 14 others during the last academic year 2020-21 as a government managed by the government offering education from class I-IV continues to be closed in Goa because registration is low.
Four schools in Pernem Taluka, three in Bicholim Taluka, each in Ponda, Sanguem and Quepem, and one in Tiswadi were closed last year.
The majority of them are maratoni-medium schools, while one medium KONKANI and one Urdu Middle School each must face closure, in accordance with education statistics with a glimpse of 2020-21 released by the Directorate of Education (DOE).
The number of government elementary schools in the state is now down to 728 at 2020-21, compared to 742 in 2019-20.
A little more than a decade ago, the number of elementary schools managed by the state is more than 1,000.
Academics have long believed that perceptions related to the quality of these schools lead to reducing registration year after year.
State education officials said that schools were closed, some of them were recently combined with the elementary school of neighboring government which had relatively higher registration.
But the old problems of the government elementary school struggling with low registration continued, such as other than 14 schools closed, hundreds were on the verge of meeting similar fate.
In Sattari Taluka, 61 government elementary schools have a registration of 20 or lower than class I-IV.
Fifty-three schools in Ponda, 48 in Canacona and 38 in Dharbandora have similar students.
The number of government elementary schools with 20 students or fewer is 33 in Sanguem, 32 in Pernem and 30 each in Bicholim and Bardez.
In Tiswadi, 11 government elementary schools were on the closing threshold.
The figure of these schools was 23 in the case of Quepem, 12 in Salcete, and seven in Mormugao.
However, the school assisted by the government and without assistance continues to grow because their number has shown a trend in the increase in 2020-21 as well.
The number of such schools carried out by private management rose to 411 during the last academic year from 407 in 2019-20.
From a living government elementary school, the majority of 661 is Marathi Middle School, followed by 19 KONKANI Middle School, 13 which offers Medium Marathi and Konkani, and 11 who have marathika and urdu as their media.
The five government elementary schools have Marathi and Kannada as their medium, four offers only Kannada, three Hindi, two Urdu and Hindi mediums, and two only Urdu as a medium.