Gujarat Model of Murdering Public Education in Broad Daylight
Satyesha Leuva, Dr. Nitheesh Narayanan
The figures presented by the Gujarat government in the legislative assembly must be discussed. The data reveals that in 1,606 government primary schools, there is only one teacher. This means that a single teacher is responsible for teaching all subjects to students from grades one to eight. In addition to teaching, the same teacher must handle administrative tasks related to running the school. In 2022, there were 700 single-teacher schools. Within a year, this number doubled. This single statistic is enough to understand the collapse of public education in Gujarat.
Gujarat is the state where the education sector is being privatized at the fastest pace. Successive BJP governments have been dismantling government schools, sacrificing the lives of students to cater to corporate interests. Without strengthening public education, it will be impossible to protect democracy in a country like India, home to millions of impoverished people. One of the first steps to reducing the growing economic and social inequality in India is to ensure high-quality education with excellent facilities for everyone. However, it is in Gujarat, where this inequality is most severe and pervasive, that school education is in the most precarious state.
Official records show that over 19,000 teaching positions in Gujarat’s schools remain vacant. Gujarat is one of the states with the lowest teacher recruitment rates in the country, resulting in one of the highest student-teacher ratios. As early as 2000, the Gujarat government announced the closure of 5,223 schools under the guise of school merger, and they have been rapidly implementing this plan. All signs indicate that the government is completely withdrawing from public education.
According to the 2024 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), one in six government schools in rural Gujarat lacks access to water. A quarter of the schools have no toilet facilities, and more than half lack electricity or computer facilities. Many schools operate in single-room buildings or structures that are far from safe. The picture is no different when it comes to the quality of education. The same report reveals shocking statistics: 74% of children in grade three cannot read, 54% of students in grade five cannot write, and 24% of students in grade eight cannot write. Due to the deplorable condition of public schools, parents in Gujarat are forced to send their children to private institutions.
In 2014, approximately 1.7 million students enrolled in the first grade, but only 1.05 million reached the tenth grade.
The number of children in Gujarat who drop out before completing even the tenth grade is alarming. In 2014, approximately 1.7 million students enrolled in the first grade, but only 1.05 million reached the tenth grade. Over 650,000 children are unable to complete their school education, turning Gujarat into a state where one out of every three children who enroll in the first grade does not continue their education beyond the higher secondary level. The dropout rate in Gujarat is significantly higher than the national average.
But what do parents face when they lose faith in this pitiful government system and enroll their children in private institutions? Recently, an eighth-grade student in Surat, Gujarat, died by suicide because her parents could not pay her school fees. Convinced that their daughter would not receive even a basic education in a government school, the parents had no choice but to enroll her in a private school. However, as daily wage laborers, they could not arrange the fees on time. Months earlier, another student had attempted suicide due to similar circumstances. It is important to remember that Gujarat ranks among the states with the lowest wages in India. According to the Reserve Bank of India’s 2022 report, while a construction worker in Kerala earns ₹837 per day, in Gujarat, the wage is only ₹296. The situation is similar in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. With such meager incomes, parents cannot afford their children’s school fees. They are forced to choose between sending their children to schools with no basic facilities or no quality of education, or discontinuing their children’s education altogether due to an inability to pay fees.
Gujarat’s education policy is entirely aligned with corporate interests. The state is becoming a place where children from working-class and marginalized families cannot even access primary education. This completely anti-people education model, implemented in Gujarat, is what the Modi government aims to replicate across India through the National Education Policy.