The Times of India 30.07.2012
North civic schools lack blackboards, water and toilet facilities
The municipal schools under North corporation are running without
blackboards in classrooms and adequate water and toilet facilities,
officials in the Education department said. The schools reopened on July
9.
Of the 266 blackboards that need repairs, work on 106 is yet to start, officials said.Earlier this month, Chairperson for Education department Rekha
Gupta had told the officials to get the work completed in a month, but
till now nothing has moved.
“I was shocked to see the blackboards in the schools. What will
teachers do without blackboards? As it is there are more students and
less teachers in our schools,” Gupta said.
The records show that toilets, too, have been neglected by the
Education department. Of the 306 toilets that need repairs, work on 139
is yet to start and only 89 have been completed.
“How can you not have clean toilets and water facility for
students who are between the ages of 5 and 10 years? What will they do
when they need to use the toilet? It is one of the reasons why students
do not come to school,” a councillor said.
Many school buildings also need repairs with regard to flooring,
roof, windows, main gate and boundary walls. Many students are yet to
get their textbooks and notebooks.
Of 124 boundary walls that need to be constructed, only 48 have
been finished and of 96 main gates that need to be put up, only 56 have
been installed.
Only 87 of the 394 schools got a new coat of paint.
“I have written to the commissioner asking him to intervene. The schools
have started, and if students do not have books, toilets, safe building
to study in, then we and officials have failed the objective of RTE,”
Gupta said.