A sorry tale of students

Hyderabad, June 27: Government schools of the state continue to be in a pathetic condition notwithstanding the promises made by the successive state governments to improve them. From dilapidated buildings to lack of toilets, water and electricity and shortage of teachers, the schools face myriad problems. More than 1.10 crore students of the state attend classes braving these difficulties.Many schools don’t even have benches and desks, and students don’t get textbooks on time. In fact, there seems to be no end to the difficulties they face. The problem is acute in high schools where adolescent girls face severe inconvenience because of lack of toilets. The School Education Joint Director, Mr Sudhakar, said "We are not sitting idle."
"But things cannot be changed overnight in government schools. The government is releasing funds for providing facilities in government schools in a phased manner." he added There is no safe drinking water facility in about 10,000 schools and another 9,000 schools do not have sufficient classrooms. More than 500 schools have been denied electricity because of pending bills and 200 schools do not have electricity connections. Hundreds of primary and upper primary schools function without benches and desks. Though the government has done nothing to improve the facilities, it is instead leasing out school buildings to private and corporate agencies to make revenue.
It expects to raise nearly Rs 1 crore per month by renting out 300-odd government school buildings located in heart of the city. There are over 800 government schools in the city. Of these, 300 are functioning at government buildings and the remaining are housed at private premises. There have been complaints that after school hours, the premises are misused by locals and anti-socials. Some schools are also being used as garbage dumps by the locals.
Those who take school buildings on rent have to vacate the rooms an hour or two before the school starts the next day. The proposal to rent the premises was made in this context. "The tender process is on and we will use the money raised from the project for the development of the school," said the District Collector, Mr Navin Mittal. Students of government schools do not get enough opportunity for extra-curricular activities as there are no teachers for subjects like drawing, craft and music. The government has not recruited teachers for these posts for nearly 12 years and over 2,000 posts are lying vacant.
To make things worse, the state government is in no mood to fill up these vacancies though more teachers are slated to retire in this new academic year. Teachers’ unions have strongly objected to the government attitude towards co- curricular activities. "These activities are necessary for proper growth of children," said the United Teachers Federation leader, Mr Narayana.
"The government cannot shirk its responsibility of encouraging and honing the creative skills of young minds." "The government is trying to make these posts redundant and gradually remove drawing, craft and music from government schools syllabus," alleged a leader of the Progressive Recognised Teachers Union. "But we will not allow this to happen. We will fight against it" he added.
(Source : DC)