Close on the heels of schools with less than five students closing down and their students transferred to nearby institutions, the academic year 2012-13 will see more schools with less than 10 students merging with others that are more popular, as the government tries to streamline the management of its educational institutions. But what happens to thousands of children from underprivileged families?

There could be even more closures in future if the report of Prof. R. Govinda, Vice Chancellor, NUEPA, New Delhi proposing merger of another 6,712 schools with less than 30 students in classes VI and VII under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, is accepted.

Facing the axe immediately, however, will be 2,510 schools with less than 10 students, listed in the District Information System for Education (DISE) report for 2011-12. Most of these schools are in the academic districts of Uttara Kannada, Sirsi, Shimoga, Udupi, South Canara, and Chamarajnagar.

Though the state education department has made it clear it will keep easy access in its mind when shortlisting schools for merger, the decision has sent shock waves among poor students, who are unhappy about moving to other schools, even if they are not too far.

The state government, however, justifies its move, arguing it's impossible to provide all facilities, including teachers in schools with less than a dozen students, “The very idea of classroom learning becomes meaningless in such schools. It is very difficult even to implement schemes like the mid- day meal in them. But when two schools are merged the government can double its support and the academic atmosphere improves,” contends an education officer, assuring that in accordance with the high court verdict, the government is committed to providing special transport allowance where necessary to students moving to their new schools.

But Mr D Shashi, organising secretary, Karnataka State Private Schools Management Federation, sees the move as yet another symptom of poor management of schools in the state. " The government simply hasn't been able to provide the quality of education that people want," he argues, warning that with the implementation of RTE more government and aided schools may head for closure.

Ask a senior officer of the Department of Public Instruction and he laments, "We are caught in the crossfire. Those who are opposing the closure of these school don’t know the ground realities. Our decision is criticised as being anti- poor. But in reality even the poor want quality education. We need to make our schools more attractive with the facilities they need ."

Improve education, get more students, say RTE activists

When schools don’t have enough students, is the answer to close them down or involve the community in increasing their enrolment?

To some the latter argument makes more sense “Even today poor people depend on government schools for education although they don’t have the best of facilities.

The cost factor is a big reason. If we start closing down so many schools we will be denying the poor their right to education,” argues Mr H.R. Shashidhar, a Right to Education (RTE) activist, Dr. Rajat Rai, an academic consultant, strongly backs community mobilisation to save schools from closure.

“In higher education, government- run institutes are the first choice of all students even for those from the elite segment. CBSE schools run by various government agencies are also in demand. But they lack quality education and so while most schools have big grounds, they lack students. If the government involves the community in the development of these schools they could attract more students. But unfortunately this involvement is restricted only to political appointments,” he regrets.

Ms. Vijayalakshmi R, a consultant with a private company, says that while most parents want quality English medium education for their children, it doesn't make sense to restrict their choices.
“We must also have schools wherever necessary for those who cannot bear the expenses of private schooling,” she insists