Agartala, Oct. 21: The exodus of students to private schools which are mushrooming in the state has put the Tripura government in a fix.

The situation is so serious that at least 100 government schools in the rural and hilly areas have virtually stopped functioning for lack of students.

According to the department of school education, 7,89,146 students are enrolled in government schools in the state but the deputy director of school education, B.K. Acharjee, said this figure is "only on paper" and the actual figure is far fewer.

Acharjee said there are 295 private schools, including more than 65 institutions run by Christian missionaries, that teach more than 1 lakh students. "The rate of enrolment in private schools has been growing very fast despite many facilities, including stipends, for students of government-run schools. At this rate, the government schools will become empty."

He attributed the exodus to dismal teaching standards, lack of a compassionate administration and other problems in government schools.

In 2012-2013, there were 2,53,340 students at the primary level and 1,83,292 students at the secondary and higher secondary level in government schools in Tripura, Acharjee said. But in 2013-2014, the number of students at the primary level declined to 2,43,668 and 1,70,416 at the secondary and higher-secondary levels, the deputy director of school education said. The decline continued in 2014-2015 with the number of students at the primary level falling to 2,35,197 and the number of secondary and higher secondary students coming down to 1,68,669. "The statistics for the year 2015-2016 is still not available but the student strength in the government-run schools must have gone down further," said Acharjee.

He said of the 4,709 government schools of all categories in the state, there were 95 schools with less than 10 students each while there were 543 schools with less than 20 students each.

"There are 1,825 schools with less than 50 students each. There are also many schools where there are no students and teachers only go to school to sign the attendance register and then return home," Acharjee said.

He said the situation was particularly "critical" in indigenous community-dominated areas. "Tribal students can study in their mother tongue Kokborok at the primary level from class I to class V but in class VI, they have to switch over to Bengali and it creates a major problem for them. There are only 117 schools in the state where Kokborok is the medium of instruction for tribal students, so they prefer English-medium schools to get rid of the language burden and achieve good results in CBSE and board exams."

He said in private schools there are no midday meals, free uniforms, stipends nor school textbooks but parents still prefer English-medium schools run by missionaries, NGOs and others, incurring considerable expenses.

Acharjee said unless the standard of teaching is improved and the language problem is resolved, the government-run schools will soon become redundant in the state.