JHARKHAND
- Govt to introduce buse service for students of merged schools
- Facing criticism over merger of schools, the Jharkhand government has decided to introduce bus transportation system for ferrying students studying in these merged schools. Chief minister Raghubar Das launched ‘urban and semi-urban school reorganization with transportation system’ for students who were finding it difficult to travel to these schools after their merger.
- The system will be introduced in phased manner. Initially, the buses will be introduced in school of urban and semi-urban areas and later it will be extended at panchyat level. Over the past six months, Jharkhand has implemented merger of 4,600 schools, and with this, the number of total schools has come down to 35,000 against 39,600 in the state. Of the 4,600 schools, 4,200 are located in urban or semi-urban areas.
- 15,000 more schools would be merged in the state in second phase. Post-merger, total number of schools in Jharkhand would come down to 20,000.
- After completion of second phase, education department is expecting to cut down requirement of teachers by 20,000. Projected savings from the merger is estimated around Rs 1300 to Rs 1500 crore.