Govt schools in district sans infra

Gagan K Teja

Tribune News Service

Patiala, July 26

While the state government has asserted its commitment to improve the level and quality of education in government schools for the benefit of the underprivileged, it is going to be a herculean task for the government to fulfill shortcomings in these schools. Right from missing boundary walls, non-availability of rooms and other infrastructure, to poor sanitation and lack of drinking water, government schools in Patiala district, the home district of Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, face it all.

Sample this, Government Primary School, Kuka, 25 km from here, is a picture of gross neglect. It does not have its own building and is being run from the village Panchayat Bhawan.

Surprisingly, all 40 students from Classes I to V share the same room which has only one blackboard and are made to study there only. The children from different classes share same benches and therefore, it becomes extremely difficult for the two teachers to teach different subjects and make them recite things.

Moreover, since the building belongs to the village panchayat, local youths have set up a gym in the same room and the children have been pushed to one side of the room. But since the teachers don’t have any option, they have squeezed these children in the available space. The teachers rue that heavy gym machinery was also a threat to the safety of the children.

To add to their woes, the Panchayat Bhawan is located on a road and children have to cross the road for drinking water and using washrooms as the school does not have any provision for the same. The school does not even have a kitchen and the mid-day meal is also cooked in the open.

Till two years ago, the primary wing of the school was also being run from Government Middle School, Kuka, building but rooms they were using were declared unsafe and were demolished. Since then, the children are attending classes at the panchayat ghar. One key of the classroom is with the youths, who come for gymming before and after school hours and despite repeated requests to the District Education Office, Patiala, the situation remains the same.

In the middle school, there are a total of 40 students from Classes VI to VIII and only two rooms. When one enters the school building, one can see heaps of cement and bricks lying in one of the corners of the school, which has been arranged by teachers only for some repair work of the rooms. Since they too are unsafe, the teachers don’t have any option but to use them.

One of the teachers said though the government had approved a computer laboratory for the school, it was never set up as they did not have a room to set up the lab. Washrooms are clogged and the children have to use the houses of nearby residents or open spaces to attend the nature’s call. The situation is so grim that the number of students in the school is now decreasing due to shortage of facilities.

The condition of Government Primary School, Kheri Mallan, is no different. When one enters the school, they are welcomed by stray animals as the school does not have a gate and boundary wall on the one side due to which the animals often enter the campus to graze. There is no provision of drinking water and washrooms are also in a bad condition.

Residents of the village said despite repeated requests, the Education Department was not doing anything and they were forced to sent their children to far-off private schools rather than sending them to the government school in the village.

Kuka school runs from Panchayat Bhawan

Government Primary School, Kuka, is a picture of gross neglect. It does not have its own building and is being run from the village Panchayat Bhawan. Surprisingly, all 40 students from Classes I to V share the same room which has only one blackboard and are made to study there only. The children from different classes share same benches and therefore, it becomes extremely difficult for the two teachers to teach different subjects and make them recite things.