Chilling reality of education in govt schools

Naina Mishra

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 14

Students of government schools have been forced to brave the chill while taking lessons due to a paucity of rooms and non-receipt of grant for the winter uniform.

At Government Model High School, Vikas Nagar, some classes run in corridors due to a dearth of classrooms in the school. 

There are 3,267 students in the school with only 30 rooms for instructional purposes. To accommodate such a huge strength of students, the school also runs in a double shift.

During a random check, The Tribune correspondent found students struggling hard to study in the open space in the corridors. 

On one side, a few students of Class VII were being taught in a walkway, while students of Class X were forced to write their test sans benches on the cold floor on the other side. 

Asked why the students were made to sit on the cold floor in the winter, the teacher who was taking the exam said the students were made to sit on the floor so that they could not cheat.

Meanwhile, students found it cumbersome to put pen to paper and sit on the floor at the same time.

The classes are being run in corridors on all three floors of the school. School Principal Sangeeta Yadav said, “Government school students are rough and tough. They can manage and adjust well in odd circumstances. As far as the problem of the school is concerned, the Education Department is aware of it. There is apparently more strength in the school with only 30 classrooms. These are peripheral areas where the strength is more. As per the Right to Education Act, we cannot refuse admission to any student.” “A new building for the nearby Raipur Kalan school is being constructed. The strength may get streamlined as many students are expected to shift there,” she added.

Similar is the state of affairs at many other government schools where there is a problem of infrastructure. At Government Middle School, Kishangarh, that runs from two places – a small school building and a dharamshala, as many as 80 students of Class V are exposed to cold wind at a passageway.

School Principal Gurpreet Singh said, “The problem has existed for years now. We try to cover the open space with a tarpaulin to check cold wind.”

At Government Middle School, Raipur Kalan, students are accommodated under a shed covered by a tarpaulin on all sides to save them from the chill. The school has only two classrooms, that do not suffice for 580 students. 

School head Poonam Chaliya said, “We are trying our best to keep the children covered in the cold weather.”

No winter uniform           grant till date

Of the 115 government schools, only a handful have been able to give the winter uniform grant to the students. This despite the Education Department having transferred the winter uniform grant to all schools in September.

Till last year, the department was following a centralised system for disbursing the grant. All schools used to receive the grant through the office of the District Education Officer. The problem arose this year after the schools were made responsible for disbursing the grant to the students.

In view of the delay, the District Education Officer had sought details from all schools the deadline for which was today. However, till 4 pm, no response was received from the schools by the DEO office.

Requesting anonymity, sources in the DEO office said there was a delay in the grant at the schools’ end due to change in the portal, Public Financial Management System (PFMS), used for flowing funds. However, schools were already intimated about the change in the version of the software and were given time to disburse funds by December 31. 

Training for the transfer of funds in the new portal was also given in September. School heads did not bother to release the grant to the students. Now, again a training-cum-workshop has been organised by the Education Department in this regard.