Arunachal Pradesh education minister Taba Tedir on Thursday said 311 schools of the State have been lying defunct for a long period of time.
In a written reply to former chief minister Nabam Tuki at the Assembly on Thursday, Tedir said that most of these defunct schools lack proper infrastructural facilities due to its location in remote areas.
The education minister also claimed that mass migration of the inhabitants of rural areas to urban places is also another reason behind the zero enrollments in the non-functional schools in the state.
Referring to a report by the Unified District Information on School Education (U-DISE), Tedir revealed that there are 1300 primary schools, over 300 middle-level schools, 68 higher secondary schools, and 103 high schools in Arunachal Pradesh.
He also said that the state government will shut down the defunct schools and focus on improving the facilities of the schools that are currently functional in the state.
Tedir also said that the assets of the defunct schools would be utilized for other purposes.
He also claimed that the state government has been providing stipends to the students of primary and upper primary schools as per its policy.
It may be mentioned that the primary school dropout in the state was found to be 23.25 per cent according to a 2016-17 survey.
According to independent surveys commissioned by the Human Resource & Development (HRD) Ministry to estimate children out of schools in the country earlier, the major reasons were poverty or economic reasons, lack of interest in studies, disabilities or poor health.