Jammu, March 20 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir has seen a steady decline in the dropout rate in schools and the government is making the maximum efforts to expand quality education in the state, a minister has said.

Education Minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, in his reply in the state assembly on the grants of the departments under him, claimed Friday that the number of school children dropping out has gone down from 367,000 to 39,000 over a period of five years 'due to the government's efforts'.

The literacy rate of the state has also gone up to 65.67 percent in the past one decade. It stood at at 56 percent in 2001.

The minister said militants burnt schools in the early 1990s and an atmosphere of fear due to militancy and counter-militancy operations kept children away from schools in many parts of the state in the past two decades.

More than 700 school buildings were burnt from 1990 to 1995. The schools would remain closed in the Kashmir Valley, particularly remote areas, because of regular gun battles, curfews and cordon and search operations by security forces, as well as shutdowns.

'This affected our education system,' Sayeed said. 'First, the government reconstructed the damaged school buildings. And now new buildings are being constructed so that the schools have proper infrastructure,' he added.

According to him, 4,242 primary and 616 middle school buildings have been constructed in the past five years.

'The recruitment of teachers has also been speeded up. The state subordinate services recruitment board has selected 6,000 teachers and more vacancies have been referred to the recruiting agency,' he said.