Painting a bleak picture, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar today said the state might have more concentration of elderly people in the next 15 years, owing to declining birth-per-couple ratio in young couples.
"The Replacement Ratio (birth-per-couple) stood at 1.72 per couple as against the required ratio of 2.32. The situation in Goa will be such that in next 15 years, the state will have more population of elderly than the young people," the chief minister told the Legislative Assembly while responding to a question tabled by Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLA Lavoo Mamledar.
Parrikar said that the drop in the children-per-couple ratio in the coastal state was one of the reasons behind falling number of pupils attending the state-run primary schools.
"There were as many as 268 state-run primary schools in the state where the strength of students is less than 15. There is one school where all the four standards have only one student each," he said.
The chief minister said that the situation was grim in several government-run primary schools, which are running with single teacher.
"If teacher is on leave, then the school gets holiday. The lone teacher gathers all the children in one classroom and teaches them," Parrikar said, adding these schools enjoy extended vacations when the teacher is posted on election duty.
He said the state government will appoint additional teachers in such schools. "One English teacher would be posted in each school to enhance the level of education in these schools," he said.
Parrikar conceded that parents are preferring urban schools over those in rural areas thinking that their wards will receive better education.
"Those schools with poor admission would be clustered with the neighbouring school. The state government will provide facility like transport for students to travel to the clustered school," he added.
