As UT basks in RTE ‘success’, students sit in corridors, balconies & near toilet doors by Suchet Attri

The UT Administration might be congratulating itself over its achievement of having implemented the Right to Education Act (RTE) in the city but the actual situation in schools leaves much to be desired. The lack of basic infrastructure, including seating arrangements and classrooms, is defeating the basic purpose of the Act. The Government High School, Mauli Jagran, is one such school in the city that is bursting at its seam with students. With the implementation of the Act, no students can be refused admission. However, the infrastructure has failed to match up.

The numbers speak for themselves. The school functions in two shifts, morning and evening, with around 2,000 students attending classes in each shift. There are just 12 classrooms to accommodate the students. Two rooms that were earlier classrooms have been converted into a computer room and a multimedia room.

As per the teachers of the school, if the ideal teacher-student ratio is to be maintained there should be more than 100 sections. A visit to the school highlights the apathy of the Administration. There are students sitting in the corridors, the balconies and even near the doors of the toilets amidst unbearable stench. The only space that is vacant are the stairs of the school.

The students are being made to bear the vagaries of the weather. In the sweltering heat, they sit on the floor without any fans. While the Administration might be looking towards introducing multimedia techniques and smart classrooms, the students here do not even have the facilities of a proper blackboard. With at least four sections sitting in one area at a time, it is a cacophony of noises amidst which the teachers and students are unable to hear each other.

Students can been seen struggling to concentrate on what their teachers are saying as the noise from the other classes seems to intermingle with theirs. The classrooms that do exist lack even rudimentary facilities.

There is a shortage of furniture. At places there is just one fan in a room and with the power supply being erratic. even this does not work.

Many teachers’ posts are lying vacant too and facilities like clean drinking water are not available to the students as the water tanks have not been cleaned for a long time. And as for the the water cooler, it has become a mere relic. The situation of the toilets are even worse and far from hygienic. The teachers rue that while they have complained many times, their pleas are falling on deaf ears.

Asked for his comments on the situation, Director Public Instructions (Schools) Sandeep Hans said, “The results of the measures we are undertaking will not come overnight. RTE has led to increase in the number of children in government schools as many underprivileged sections have to accommodated. The issues are being looked into.”

District Education Officer Chanchal Singh added that a new school will be coming up in the area and all the three schools in the nearby areas would soon get new rooms to accommodatethe RTE enrollment.