Education News

Uttar Pradesh Crumbling school system In Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous (166 million) state where the ruling Samajwadi party government is more concerned with moral policing, engineered communal clashes and political vendettas, education is a low priority. Most of the state’s 122,835 government schools in 70 districts are characterised by crum-bling buildings designated as schools. Unsurprisingly in end November, the roof of a school building in Lucknow’s Dayaram Purva locality came crashing down, seriously injuring two students. In Lucknow district which hosts 1,686 dilapidated schools with 3.69 lakh students, it was a disaster waiting to happen. Following a public outcry, the city education officer Pankaj Gupta ordered that students of 13 primary schools in decrepit buildings be shifted to neighbouring schools within 24 hours. But the order itself prompted further protest because some of the endan-gered schools had enrollments of over 400. This consideration had aborted a similar order issued three years ago. “It takes time to build schools. We are doing the best we can. In many instances the children themselves don’t want to move to new schools fearing that the commuting distance will be too much,” says Gupta who prefers not to comment about a promise made by him last August to repair school buildings that were compromising the safety of students. But it’s possible this was because the quality of repairs don’t inspire much confidence. In 2002 the education department decided that a primary school building in the city’s Chinhat suburb was too dangerous for its 200 students. So Rs.1.5 lakh was expended to set up a new building next door. However the school continues to function from its old premises as the peeling plaster, cracked floors and walls and falling concrete of the new structure make it more unsafe than the older one. Moreover the building had only two classrooms which meant classes would have to be held in the portico as well. Unsafe buildings isn’t the only problem plaguing UP’s primary schools which have a modest Rs. 12.93 crore budget for civil works for the financial year 2005-06. Shortage of teachers and support staff is another chronic problem. Over 200 schools in Lucknow are single teacher institutions. In Varanasi, 1,082 primary schools have just 4,272 teachers between them. In schools that function in Dalit dominated areas, students are often asked to double up as sweepers and peons. Comments a dispirited teacher: “Can you imagine a school where a single teacher teaches all subjects to all classes while the headmaster remains busy with administrative work? These children come from poor families and don’t have a supportive home study environment. We aren’t able to provide it here either. There is no electricity and our students have to sit on worn-out mattresses. We have made so many complaints to the education department, but nothing comes of it.” It’s the same story elsewhere. In Lucknow’s neighbouring Faizabad district, Rs.1 crore is allocated annually for running primary schools. But most school buildings are either incomplete or unsafe. Faizabad’s shiksha adhikari (education officer), Devi…