The NITI Aayog, in its report on Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital in Education (SATH-E), has recommended the consolidation of small, sub-scale, and low-enrollment schools in India, emphasizing school mergers as a viable solution for enhancing learning outcomes. The SATH-Education project, implemented in three states - Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha - aims to demonstrate the potential and challenges of taking decisive actions to improve the quality of education. Jharkhand, in collaboration with NITI Aayog, implemented the merger of 4,380 schools, resulting in significant savings of Rs 400 crore.
"Our goal is that every child in the state should have access to quality education," said K Ravi Kumar, Secretary of School Education and Literacy, Jharkhand. The state's efforts included the consolidation of 4,380 sub-scale schools, the introduction of the Gyan Setu programme, and the development of systems for assessments, teacher capability enhancement, and an MIS (eVidyaVahini) to support the transformation journey.
The drawbacks of maintaining sub-scale schools, as outlined in the report, include extensive multi-grade teaching, a lack of accountability from student and parent communities, inadequate infrastructure, and a single teacher handling administrative responsibilities. NITI Aayog stressed the high costs associated with such schools and recommended thoughtfully executed school mergers.
Jharkhand initiated a large-scale school merger process during the academic years 2016-17 and 2017-18. Of the approximately 39,000 schools in Jharkhand, around 18,000 had 60 or fewer students, prompting the consolidation of 1,300 sub-scale schools in 2016-17 and a further 4,380 schools in 2017-18.
The consolidation exercise aimed to identify and merge sub-scale schools where alternative government schools were available within walking distance. Geo-analytics were employed to map schools, and a list of approximately 14,000 schools was shared with field coordinators for physical verification. Neutral cross-district 'action teams' were formed, inspections were conducted, and proposals meeting RTE norms were presented for approvals.
A two-tier committee at the block and district levels ensured a fact-based inspection, addressing local concerns. Live tech-based dashboards, fed with real-time data, facilitated the finalization of schools, monitoring of approvals, and tracking student movement. The consolidation effort was estimated to save Rs 400 crore, and pilot initiatives in districts like Ramgarh, Hazaribagh, and Ranchi included bus transport for easier student access to host schools.
"The cost of such subscale schools in the form of extensive multi-grade teaching, lack of a student and parent community that can demand accountability, poor infrastructure, the same 1-2 teachers also handling all administrative responsibilities in the absence of headmasters/ principals, etc. is very high," the NITI Aayog said.
"Thoughtfully executed school mergers is one path forward. This has been executed across SATH-E states with favourable results," it added.
