No student in 32,000 schools: Report

While many in India speak about the need for 100 per cent literacy and crores are pumped into schemes like the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan, a government survey has unearthed some disturbing new facts and figures.

According to the report titled Elementary Education in India 2005-06, a report prepared by the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), over 32,000 schools or almost 3 per cent schools do not have a single student.

Forty-eight per cent of these schools, mostly at the primary level, are in rural areas.

The survey covered over 11 lakh schools in 35 states and union territories and found that Karnataka was the worst with almost 8,000 schools without a single student.

The survey also found 6 per cent schools had less than 25 students, mostly in Bihar, Delhi, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.

The low enrollment is not surprising.

A school in Rewai village in Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh has been closed ever since it was built. The village has a school, but no students and since there are no students, there are no teachers either.

''People come to the school premises to relieve themselves as it always remains closed,'' complained a student.

Twenty-three thousand schools don't have a single teacher and more than a lakh schools had just one teacher.

Schools also end up being without any students because they are set up in inaccessible areas.