Himachal Congress chief opposes school de-notification in tribal areas

Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Pratibha Singh on Sunday asked the state government- led by her party not to go ahead with its decision to de-notify 90 government schools in tribal areas. In a statement, Singh said that former state Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had opened these schools in remote tribal areas with tough topography to provide education to students closer to their homes. She said that the number of students in these schools might be less, but it would not be right to denotify them. Some of these schools are located in snow-bound areas such as the Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur districts as well as the Pangi and Bharmour areas in the Chamba district. Connectivity to these areas often gets snapped during the winter months.
The Congress Chief, having returned from Lahaul and Spiti said that the people of the district urged her to keep the schools open and that she was conveying their message. On Sunday, Leader of Opposition, Jai Ram Thakur called the de-notification proposal “anti-people” and said that even after six months in office, the Congress government was still adamant about continuing with its de-notification of institutions opened for the welfare of the people. He said some of these schools were functional for the past two to three years and are located in far-flung areas. The Himachal Pradesh government on Saturday denotified 90 government middle, high, and senior secondary schools citing administrative reasons and low enrolment. The schools denotified comprised 20 middle schools with less than 15 students, 34 high schools with less than 20 students, and 36 senior-secondary schools with less than 25 students, according to a notification issued here.
Earlier, 286 schools (primary and middle) with zero enrolments had been de-notified. Education Minister Rohit Thakur had then said primary schools with fewer than ten students, middle schools with less than 15 students, senior secondary schools with less than 25 students, and colleges with fewer than 65 students would be shut down. The ruling Congress party has maintained that hundreds of government institutions were opened at the very end of the BJP government’s tenure without budgetary provisions and required staff just to woo voters.